While many were celebrating Obama’s presidency on November 4th, racist opponents started responding with hate crimes on November 5th. Take a look at: “Election spurs ‘hundreds’ of race threats, crimes”.
I went to a Taste of Limmud NY session on Thursday where racism was discussed. I was the only non-white person in a group session that discussed “racism” between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. My first point was that using the term racism for these type of hate crimes was a misappropriation of the word. Most Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews are NOT from a different race. The moderator quickly deflected my comments by turning to older folks in the group who had lived through the Civil Rights movement when “things were much worst in America.” One person was shocked to see racism occuring in Israel because that “sort of thing doesn’t happen in America.”
I was shocked, but only somewhat, to be surrounded by people so sheltered by today’s brand of racism. In my experience, it’s easy to be sheltered from racism when you’re white. When you wear your race on your sleeve, when you’re not white but “other,” race and racism are a constant concern. My husband’s eyes were opened when he and his parents were looking at properties in Riverdale and the white Jewish real estate agent asked where he was living now. “Washington Heights,” my husband said. “Oh, don’t worry, there aren’t too many Hispanics here in Riverdale,” the real estate agent assured him with no prompting from my husband.
The worst was dealing with white guilt after the session when a number of white Jews came up to me to explain that they all had African-American friends. So what? Their confessions had absolutely nothing to add to our conversations. But they were scared that I thought they were racist and they wanted to assure me otherwise by touting token black friends.
Alas, racism is not dead in America. No, in America our racism is just less public. We like to keep our racism behind closed doors for the most part. We like to pretend that race itself doesn’t exist. But pretending that we are not different will never help end racism.
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 
We are still better off than Europe. America just elected an African-American President and there are Hispanic public officials across our country like Bill Richardson or Luis Guiterrez. Check out Radio Netherlands’ website which probed the question if Holland would ever have a non-white Prime Minister and pretty much concluded not for awhile. To paraphrase the ’70’s Bill Gaither Southern gospel song:“We’re not what we are going to be, We’re not what we ought to be, but thank G-d we’re not what we were!”All the best and Buena Semana, which is how we greet each other, in my Sephardic family, after Havadalah every Moatzei Shabbat!
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Couldn’t have said it better myself, wrpn.
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The whole “White Guilt” thing is something that, to this day, I don’t understand. Where does it come from, and where does thinking that having a Black friend means that someone isn’t racist? *puzzled*
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