Blessed Are The Gatekeeper Analysis

In his critical essay, “Blessed are the Gatekeepers,” Gary Younge defines and demonstrates what the term “gatekeeping” means through historical anecdotes and direct commentary of what “gatekeepers” are and are not. It is only after this first anecdote that Younge defines the term “gatekeepers,” as, “arbiters of who does or does not belong, on what basis and to what end” (90). In relation to Joseph’s story, it seems that the gatekeeper would be the Israeli Chief who ultimately decided that Joseph did not belong to the Jewish identity on the basis of his answers. Further into the text, Younge continues to characterize gatekeepers, giving the readers a clearer understanding of what his idea of gatekeeping is. He claims that “these gatekeepers hold great power. For with certain pieces of paper come certain …show more content…
Younge has not made clear whether gatekeeping is limited to people, institutions, or invisible social barriers. However, it can be gathered from the definitions that he has provided, that to him, gatekeepers can be anyone or anything, from an individual to an entire government, that has the ability to decide what lines border the boxes of identities and the people who are and are not allowed in them. It is also apparent that Younge sees gatekeeping as a responsibility and influence in a community. This perspective is further supported when he states, “It is the gatekeeper’s task to make sense of this chaos; to deny the complexity, ignore the variety, suppress the unruliness and enforce the archetype to impose the standard by which all ways of being may be measured,”(108). This statement informs the readers that Younge sees gatekeepers as people or institutions whom organize groups of people into categories by imposing standards of identity and ignoring the diversity, and thereby lessening conflict and chaos. It is not until the end of his essay that Younge speaks of gatekeeping with a slight bias when he writes, “The trouble is, the threshold keeps on