I Saw Racism Received Like a Body Blow Today

If you grow up in America it is hard not to incorporate some racist attitudes into your being. Sadly, it is just part of the DNA of an American. When I could just barely read I remember seeing signs that read, “Whites Only”, and being perplexed by it. While I could read, I had not assimilated the cultural norm that some people are better than others based solely on the color of their skin. I believe that as a nation we have been working very hard to move away from this paradigm. I believe Dr. King’s dream will be fully actualized someday.

Prejudice and bigotry is something I have thought about a bit over the last few years for a couple personal reasons. One being that when I lived in Jackson, Mississippi I became good friends with a black man a few years older than myself. We remain the best of friends to this day despite the change in my geographical location. He grew up in an area of town not too far from the street now named Medgar Evers Blvd. He has told me stories of the Civil Rights era in that town that left me less than proud to be white.  When we first started hanging around together we had a series of discussions about race. It is just something that has to happen in this society in a “mixed” relationship.

The other reason is that a few years ago I started dating a Jewish woman, and eventually married her. If it is possible the prejudice against Jews has been going on longer than prejudice about a person’s skin color.

I have read some of the sociologist’s explanations of the origins of prejudice. It used to be a necessary survival mechanism to fear other groups of humans. Unfortunately, we have not outgrown that primitive defense mechanism.   The roots of the racial conflict in this country are obvious. How do you enslave a race of humans without somehow demoting them in the ranking of humanity?

What perplexes me is the long standing bigotry against Jews. Perhaps it just speaks of my naivety, but I was in college before I realized that people were prejudiced against Jewish people. Then it was mainly because one of my roommates was Jewish and he had a chip on his shoulder about it.

After the Diaspora from the Middle East the Jews spread out over Europe. Of course for centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire Europe was ravaged by medieval Christianity.   Jews not only practiced a different religion, but perhaps looked a little different. Given that Christ was a Jew, I scratch my head about their bigotry. Jews have been called Christ killers, but that was a combination of the Jewish establishment and governing Romans. Without the crucifixion there is no Christianity. From my reading of history, the Jews mainly wanted to be left alone and practice their religion. Many worked very hard to integrate into whatever society they found themselves while hopefully maintaining their Jewish identity. One of the negative stereotypes about Jews is that they are usurious money lenders. I cannot speak to the usurious portion, but frequently the Jews were forced in ghettos and forced out of many occupations. One of the few left to them was that of money lender. It was seen as distasteful by the larger population. However, it was a necessary component of society.

The conflict in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors, especially Palestine is another sore point.   It is seen in many parts of the world as a Jewish problem rather than that of the state of Israel. Maybe you cannot separate the two.

I just have a hard time seeing a reason to be prejudiced against Jews. To me they just strike me as ethnic like the Italian or Russian family down the street. Given the spectrum of religions in this country, even the spectrum of Christian religions, why should their religion offend? Perhaps it is just ignorance and lack of exposure?

All this hate and prejudice was driven home early this morning.   As we were puttering around on this holiday we were listening to NPR. The story came on about the shooting in the Danish synagogue. I could see my wife react like someone had hit her in the belly with a board. I do not believe this fear of intolerance and bigotry is ever too far from a Jewish person’s thoughts. She has told me a couple stories that reinforce this. One being that as a small child she wished she was black as she perceived that as an easier road. Another being that when she lived in a different suburb of St. Louis she allowed people to think her as Italian as that made life a little easier.

I do not know what the answer is, but I do know that continued intolerance is not it.