Yesterday, my grandson who is 4 was helping me pile brush from our recent yard cleaning project. I happen to notice a group of people walking down the street towards the local convenience store "Kwik Trip". They were white which is not usual in a community 90% white. There was a little brown haired boy probably about 10 years of age. He was looking back and yelling "Nigger, Nigger, Nigger". My assumption is that he was addressing a Somali. I did not see who he was yelling this slur. Anyway, the group passed our house. It has a complete family.
On his last "Nigger" slur, I yelled "You'd better watch out what is coming out of your mouth.
The father apologized and the mother said they did not see us until they came around the corner of the house.
I was angry. My grandson did not know what the slurs meant. But I did. All day he had been whining about working in the yard. I told him "Don't you dare cry in front of those white people". It was humiliating to have to endure these comments and especially in front of my grandson. The people did apologize for the slur, but they did not make any effort to tell the child that it was wrong and a very painful comment. Shabbat is starting and I looked at my tattered Megan Star flag waving in the breeze. This symbol means a lot to me. It is not only a symbol of my identity but also where we have been. The Blacks and Jews have suffered equally in the past. Racial slurs,discrimination and death. Our history has been one of isolation and segregation.
For millenniums we have been the outcast of the human race. People have been taught to hate and despise us. Many having never met or spent time trying to know us. They teach this same prejudice and racism to their children. Makedah and I know most of this town does not want us.
Likewise, we are also aware the only reasons we are here is the will of G*d and the assistance of the federal government. If the laws against discrimination, hanging and segregation of Blacks, Asians, Hispanic and other non-white were removed, Makedah and I could not live in a 90% white Christian community. Each day we leave our homes to do business with people who do all they can to make us feel unwelcome. The Somalis and Asians have walled themselves within their respective communities. They do business with their own people while working for the white man. The Somalis have converted a old building with this cities help and Christian well-doers into a Mosque. However, there is no place for Makedah and I to worship. Our home has become the only Temple we know.
I had hoped people seeing that even if we are a three race family ( I am Black American and Native American and Makedah is Asian American) and Jewish; it did not mean we were terrible people.
However, what I heard coming from that boy's mouth and others since we have been here. I do wonder what kind of world my grandson will grow up in. He has no role models except "black and or Hispanic thugs" in his inner city neighborhood or on television. There are no white and accepting Jews in this community and neither are there any in his neighborhood who would embrace him and us and make us all feel welcome. Several time we have been asked to pull up and move to a urban area to find Jews. But the urban areas of this country are dangerous. Unemployment is high among minorities and housing is segregated by race in most cases. Even the Jews in urban areas are not welcoming to minority Jews. There are always questions about whether or not we are Jewish and other challenges to our Jewish identity. Most Jews in America are white. Many are as prejudice,bigoted and racist as their white non- Jewish counterparts.
I want my grandsons to grow up in a world in which they do not feel cursed because they were born with brown skin like their grandfather. If they choose to become Jews, my hope is there will be a Jewish community waiting and willing to accept them without question. I would like to know if they need support, there is a Jewish community willing to help them feel good about being Jewish. It hurt me deeply to hear the words "Nigger,Nigger, Nigger". It hurts me even more that Makedah and I must deal with it alone.
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