I have a shita not to donate money to places that perpetuate a lifestyle and viewpoint that I don't believe in. I don't donate money to the schools I went to as a child in Scranton because I have a very hard time with the goals they have for their students as well as their outlook on life in general.
As we commemorate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend, I started to think about the education my girls are already receiving about him in preschool, and tried to figure out when I had first heard of him, and when I first became aware of that whole chapter of American history.
The only conversation I remember hearing about black people in elementary school was when a teacher instructed us that when we see a black man approaching, we should cross the street for our own safety. My eyebrows raised, I asked why. She said it was for safety reasons.
Not long thereafter, I was walking home with a good friend and I mentioned that I was really bothered by what our teacher had said. I'm not sure exactly how the conversation got there, but at one point I said "I mean, there are black Jews!"
My friend looked at me, and declared "There are NOT!"
This was shortly after Operation Solomon in 1991, and the Ethiopian Jews were the only black Jews I knew of. So I told her about the amazing air-lifts, which I'm realizing now means our school never breathed a word about them.
We learned about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Mrs. Augustine (than you for this!) asked us to write journal entries as if we were living at that time. I'll never forget Rachaeli Ganz's hilarious take on the life of a plantation owner's daughter. It was along the lines of: I woke up at 9 am today, and was upset to find that my breakfast was not ready yet - I was up early and hungry! After I got dressed I was so hot that I had to sit on the front porch and get fanned while I drank iced tea. What a hard day.
Sometime around 8th or 9th grade we were assigned an essay in history class and given a wide-open choice of topics, and my mother suggested I research and write about the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King. She sat with me and looked through our piano music until we found the song We Shall Overcome, which I quickly learned. I learned the ugly history of what happened after the Civil War, and the inspirational change that came about. I saw that Jewish leaders were actively involved in supporting the cause, going on marches and Freedom Rides.
So it was a little hard to take when my principal in 9th grade, while talking about Tziporah (Moshe's wife) made a comment about black people innately being ugly and that you 'can't tell them apart'. I recall calling him out on it, but I was the one who was left looking weird, not him. Yes - the very same people teaching me that we curtail our Hallel-related happiness on Pesach because the Miztrim who drowned were God's creations just saw black people as Other, with no sympathy for anything *these* creatures of God experienced.
I'm lucky enough that I trusted my mother over my teachers, and that I absorbed her message instead of theirs. The fact is, the people who said those things are otherwise nice people and not what one pictures when one says 'racist'. They are people who do chesed, who live religious lifestyles, and who think of themselves as good and caring people. Yet the world outside of the yeshivish Askenazi Jewish community doesn't seem to interest them at all. They are not fervent supporters of Israel, they don't like Chabad, they don't like less frum people, they have no need for 'goyim' except as they may work together. They don't care about the struggles of any other group.
Luckily, they are a minority in the Jewish world. Luckily, I got out and went to Bruriah, where Mrs. Kahn shook my faith in the Founding Fathers and where Mr. Glaser assigned us to learn in depth about things I Never thought a Jewish school would care about. Luckily I found a group of religious Jews who do care about the rest of the world, and who understand that prejudice against *any* group affects every group. Luckily I learned that Jews, and all people, come in every color, and the measure of a person has nothing to do with skin color, religious affiliation, or lack thereof.
I know today that it is my religious and ethical duty to teach my children to respect all people. It is my duty to let my children know that Jews can look white, black, Asian, Latino - any which way. It is my duty to teach my children that there is no room for prejudice in our lives, and that when they hear words of prejudice they have to speak out.
The people who hold those views, they may not be bad people in some senses, but they allow for bad things to happen. We're lucky to live in a time and a country where we have the same rights as other people. Let's not betray our history by embracing our good fortune to the detriment of others. Yes, in today's America many Jews can pass for white, and many choose to use that luxury without thinking about it. While we should be grateful for the opportunities afforded us now that weren't, say, 50 years ago, we should also be working to bring all people to the point of simply being accepted.
Anyone who tries to justify religious Jewish racism by saying that Jews aren't supposed to mix with other people (as was once told to me by another well-meaning yet completely racist person) should take a good long look around the Jewish world and honestly reevaluate. Take a look at Jewish history and reevaluate! Do you think Avraham Avinu looked like he was from Norway? Do you think Moshe Rabbeinu looked like he was from Ireland? Learning and davening to elevate the world only goes so far if you're not actually going to step in to functionally help change the world - all it takes is changing the way you think.
