By
day, they were the extreme minority as teachers. By night, they lived in all-white neighborhoods, surrounded by folk who hated their existence- simply for having the nerve to teach
The film was well done. It displayed harsh images, but it relieved our discomfort with humorous stories from both the Jewish professors who are still with us and the African-American students who learned from them. The discussion and moderation that followed the program, however, left a lot to be desired. Don't get me wrong-the room was filled with intelligent people: Rabbis, Reverends, Jewish professors and simply those who have lived through these experiences and had personal knowledge to share.
Unfortunately, the discussion revolved around one prominent topic: the affinity or alliance between Jews and Blacks.
Now, this is an interesting topic. The implication is that at one point in U.S. history, there was a mutual respect or shared victimization between the two peoples. The subject they discussed was that perhaps for a number of reasons, the alliance no longer truly exists.
I was sitting in the audience, and my hand kept popping up timidly to say something, anything, but the moderator never saw me. My frustration grew. To continue to discuss an affinity between African-Americans and Jews is to imply that we can only understand each other based on mutual hardship.
Well, if this is truly the solution, then we could gather most of the United States together, am I right?
Native Americans, Chicanos, and Irish-Americans could gather. Jews, African-Americans and the Japanese could gather. Homosexuals, communists and the homeless could gather. The United States is a patchwork of victims.
In the film, the most poignant quote was from a Jewish professor who had been told, upon being arrested for eating at a lunch counter with a black man, "Ah, you are a Jewish refugee? You must be glad to be in a country of freedom and democracy." The audience laughed bitterly at the sad irony. Because the point is: a nearly complete history of the United States could be told through the eyes of each oppressed group. If the end to hatred is the gathering of victims, then we've got all the major players.
But the solution can't be shared oppression, can it? Shouldn't we concentrate on the fact that we all have souls? That we share that? I can recall some great advice from a Chilean play - "We cannot forget the past, but we cannot live in its tragedy, either."
Or rather, if we must become active because of some form of negativity, then let's focus on economic inequality, the kind that the Jewish professors experienced when they fled Germany, and the kind that exists today. It touches us all.
