The Other

 With the war between Israel and Hamas has come a huge rise of antisemitism.  That’s less surprising than the fact that hatred toward Semitic people is as old as time. Lost in the current strife is the fact that both Arab and Jewish people are considered Semitic. It comes down to the language groups originally spoken by people who historically hail from the Middle East.

But when we speak about antisemitism and its rise, we’re talking about hatred and prejudice directed toward Jews. In a complex situation like Palestinian and Israeli land claims and rights, the situation is further complicated. How alike and how dissimilar are these people? Isn’t it true that some Israelis and Palestinians have lived side by side peacefully for decades? 

Nevertheless, hatred toward Jews and the vicious stereotypes that often accompany it is very much alive and on the rise. For some, it’s a matter of indolence. Too lazy to change their thinking about the old tropes. Thus when an elderly guest at a dinner party I attended a few years ago told be about a good deal she got at a garage sale by “Jewin’ ’em down" on the price, I was not really shocked, but rather disappointed. Tropes about stingy Jews and dishonest "Gypsies" ( getting Gyped)  persist because some folks are too lazy to change their thinking and behavior. Nevertheless, the sting remains for the target group.

Growing up in a post-war suburban area of Southern California, I was never given any religious background. I knew that my parents and most relatives were Jewish, but never having gone to a synagogue or celebrating the religious holidays, being a Jew was never something that was clear to me. Being the “other” definitely was. That’s because of the way I was treated.

My middle school experience offers the best examples. From time to time I’d hear comments like “dirty Jew” or “quit acting like a Jew” but they usually weren’t personal. Of course, there was always a little sting, but I just chalked it up to ignorance. Those same kids freely referred to black folks as “niggers” and Latinos as “beaners” and all Asians as Chink or Dink. Occasionally the term Jap would find its way into this lexicon of stereotyping. 

My Middle School was tough. It had a fair mix of Mexican-American, Asian, and working-class white kids. It also had a tradition of hazing through an act called “scrubbing.” The incoming 7th graders were harassed by 8th and 9th graders by chasing after them and then holding them down while applying lipstick all over their faces. It was harmless at best, and humiliating at worst. Usually, these incidents came at the beginning of the school, but by Fall or Winter, good old-fashioned racial bigotry or antisemitism took root.

Kids known or suspected to be Jewish had pennies thrown at them. Pelted by pennies was more like it. The message was that Jews are so tight they covet every penny. So if a penny was on the ground, everyone who was Jewish would fight for it. One day while walking to my next class I observed this particular behavior,  followed by one of the perpetrators making another. "Do you know why Jews have such big noses? It's where they put all the pennies!" Uproarious laughter followed, but for every kid like me another dart was thrown directly at me.

The worst incident I experienced came one day while still in Elementary school.  I used to walk home with a handful of the kids who lived near me.  Three or four lived only a few blocks away and by the time we reached their houses, I was almost home.  One day, one of the other 5th-grade girls had about $5.00 to spend on candy.  I think her parents were recently separated and her dad gave her a $5 bill for candy because she was feeling depressed about her new home life. She told all the kids she was going to spend the entire $5 and asked about five of us, "What do you want?"  Most of us said nothing. So she went on ahead and returned from our community drugstore with the large candy counter with a big brown bag. In those days there was still penny candy and even two for a penny candy.  Regular-sized candy bars were a nickel and a dime, so you can imagine how many pieces added up to $5. 

Everybody crowded around to see what poured out of the bag.  Then it saw it. The gold foil gleaming in the sun.  The one candy I could never afford: was Rolo.  The caramel-covered chocolate little disks that were always out of reach for me.  Others went for Look bars or Almond Joy.  Lots of takers for Necco Wafers, Snickers, and 3 Musketeers.  "Go on Bruce, take something our benefactor urged.  There was still a huge bagful of candy remaining.  "Can I have the Rolo," I queried. "Sure, came the quick reply.  So I took it out of the bag and began to carefully unwrap the shiny exterior.

"Only a Jew would take that," soon echoed in my ear.  Dennis, a local bully wasted no time.  "I wouldn't take candy from somebody,   only a Jew would" he repeated.  A dart in the heart, that 65 years later stings as sharp now as it did then.  

I used to question where this kind of insensitivity comes from?  But I know now it's taught.  There was probably a good reason for adhering to these stereotypes because putting down people often serves to elevate the self.  A shakey self, at that.  Still, the message that always came through is we are the ones that set the rules, this is our world and you are the other, the less than, the inferior.  

Save Our Land

 Timothy Egan has done it again.  This writer is an American treasure.  His books cover essential topics from America's past that resonate today and allow for historical perspective that is needed and necessary.

In A Fever in the Heartland, Egan traces the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in middle America.  When we think of the notorious Klan, most of us automatically think of the South.  But shortly after World War I, with the country in the throes of a postwar moral dilemma, the infamous Klan rose to prominence and swelled its ranks in the states of Ohio and Indiana.  We are talking of a membership in the hundreds of thousands.

Under the direction of a few prominent personalities the Klan leadership first co-opted the Protestant Church and its ministers. Then it went on to recruit and bribe various political officials from members of Congress to local politicos and judges, law enforcement agencies, and any other decision-making entity that might be of use.  

With DC Stephenson at the helm, the Klan became a national terrorist organization to reckon with and fear. Stephenson was a drifting con man whose racism and xenophobia found a quick home in the Klan.  Despite the Klan's moral facade, Stephenson was a hard-drinking, wife-beating, paranoid opportunist who saw a land and population ripe for the picking.  He often predicted his success.  His arguments on all things political and social were underpinned by his ability to tell a lie so long and strong that he convinced thousands to drop their notions of democracy, fairness, equality, and violence.

To see thousands of our fellow Americans draped in sheets and hoods attending public meetings that openly advocated white supremacy, anti-semitism, racism, and anti-Catholic views is truly eye-opening.  Yet it is the kind of thing that conveniently has been left out of many history books.  Those educators committed to telling the truth will have to face these facts at some point.  Timothy Egan helps bridge that wide and ever-widening gap with his scholarship.

As I read through this book one thing comes dramatically to the surface. In documenting the life of DC Stephenson the parallels to a former President of the United States are glaringly clear.  The racism, the xenophobia, and the attitudes toward the underclass, immigrants, and women are spot on.  If a sociopath can win the presidency, one can surely wrangle the leadership of the Klan.

**Footnote: In the summer of 1969, while a VISTA Volunteer in Houston, Texas, I took a small poster off a telephone pole near downtown Houston on Main Street.  It was a Klan recruitment poster that had a black graphic of a hooded Knight holding a torch while mounted on a rearing steed.  Across the image were the words "Save Our Land, Join the Klan."  Since that time over 50 years ago, the hatred and fear pseudo-science espoused by this hate group has refused to go away.  Are we or have we already been condemned to repeat?