83. Mika Stein on Black + Jewish Identity, BBYO and the Cost of Speaking Out

<p>Mika Stein is an NYC comedian and a certified politics and history junkie. He joins Lit Hein to talk about growing up Black and Jewish in Texas and rising through the ranks of the Jewish community.</p><p>We briefly met at a Jewish youth group (BBYO) convention in 2013, when he served as International President, taking a gap year to advocate for Jewish teens and Israel. Since then he's become outspoken about Israel and about the propaganda he was fed, both from BBYO and on his various trips to Israel.</p><p>Mika and I get into the actual fever dream that was BBYO: a teen hierarchy and hookup economy based on an elaborate point system, a Malia Obama spit chain, and the life-altering chaos of losing an election.</p><p>He opens up about how anti-Semitism, his mixed race identity, lobbying, and youth organizing shaped the pressure to be "the right kind of Jew,” and what it actually cost him to start speaking out.</p>