This is a very brave essay, in the sense you are going to catch a lot of flack for it. It is also a really good essay because it will make a lot of people think.

People hate doing that. It's the mark of a good writer when you can make it happen.

And, I have to say you made me think about Anne Frank in a new way. At my age "something new" doesn't happen very often. Almost everything is derivative or restatement. A new idea or viewpoint is appreciated 🤔.

As to what you are saying. While it surprises me because I thought "The Diary of Anne Frank" had been translated into 147 languages and everyone on the planet knew about it.

It doesn't surprise me that they didn't care that much about it.

Like you say, assuming that everyone venerates your icons because they are yours, is White privilege in this case. We make no effort to even learn the icons of others yet we expect them to know ours.

Because our culture is the only one that matters.

Although I think you could have been a little more clear that you meant "Anne Frank" the book has White privilege. Not Anne Frank the real person, but ANNE FRANK the secular humanist Saint. ANNE FRANK as a symbol.

Because the real Anne Frank hardly matters anymore. Her name and face are now symbols and we have mythologized her. Just like Jesus, Mohammed, Ghandi, MLK, and others the mythology around her is more important than the actual person.

We like her story, we find it inspiring because it says that you can be oppressed and hold onto hope. That you can suffer but not be filled with hatred and anger. That even in the worst of circumstances there can be joy and love.

It's not a bad message. But I'm Jewish and I find the way she has been deified, in a country that wouldn't take in Jews before the war, to be somewhat odd. Putting Anne Frank on a pedestal in many ways is how White America deals with its Antisemitism.