I know that it's been a week since the incident, but I fell ill and then had to catch up on tasks that had to be put aside as a result. That was unfortunate, as I sincerely wanted to write about it within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of the incident.
The shooting of security Guard, Steven Johns, at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C by accused assailant, James Von Brunn, occurred on Wednesday, June 10, 2009. James Von Brunn was a White Supremacist while Steven Johns was Black, but there were many tourists inside the museum that included Christians, Jews, men, women, and children. On the one hand, the shooting took me by surprise in that it was a horrific tragedy. On the other hand, I wasn't surprised because I've read, seen, and personally experienced the covert and overt racism from Blacks, Whites, and Jews, and the anti-Semitism from Christians.
My husband, John (Micaiah ben Malachi), is Black and Native-American, and I'm a dark-skinned Asian from the Philippines. Black separatists, like Micaiah's father, have called Micaiah "Uncle Tom" because he emulated White culture and mannerisms. Micaiah was also attacked by some Black gangs in 1994 because of his no-drug policy stance and because he was associating with Whites and Native-Americans instead of with Black people. When my stepdaughter was trying to apply for a job in our small town seven years ago, employers she talked to by phone told her that they were hiring and encouraged her to "come pick up an application". But, when she arrived to these businesses, she was immediately told that they weren't hiring. When we met one-on-one with a rabbi at our home six and a half years ago, we were told that our "situation was too overwhelming for his congregation to undertake". On the surface, he was referring to our disability and our inability to drive. Beneath the surface, however, he was referring to our race as he admitted to us that an Ethiopian guy was attending his synagogue only for the congregants to stare at him like he was some kind of animal and exclude him from the various synagogue functions. Then, five or six years ago, a Christian volunteer group was going to people's houses throughout our small town, doing yardwork and cleaning windows for the disabled and elderly. Someone in the community must have told them about Micaiah and I, so the group came to cut our grass and clean our windows. They also planted some beautiful flowers and vegetables in our flowerbed. We found their work to be admirable, so we decided that we would hire one of the members for pay to continue cutting our grass. However, as time progressed, we realized that nobody from the group was willing to take the job, as nobody called or showed up at our door. We knew that race and class weren't the issue, as they had Mexicans and Blacks in their churches. Thus, we came to the conclusion of anti-Semitism. Unless we were willing to convert back to Christianity, they didn't want anything to do with us socially or otherwise. These are only a few of the countless number of our experiences.
Way before now President Barack Obama started campaigning for the presidency, I'd heard such US radio and television commentators as Paul Harvey, Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs whine about the "browning of America". They were referring to the high influx of Hispanic and Somali immigrants as well as the intermixing of races between Blacks and Whites through marriage and the offspring that they bore. A few of our White neighbors have told Micaiah ben Malachi and I how they felt that Africa sent all the "dumb Niggers here to the United States while they kept the smart ones back in Africa". During President Barack Obama's campaign last year, many people in the news media were interviewed about how they felt about Barack Obama possibly becoming President. While race was the underlying issue in that they didn't want a Black man for president, they felt, on the surface, that Obama was too "inexperienced" to be a president. We've also had a number of people espouse the same rhetoric to us. Then, about two weeks after President Obama was elected, there was a headline on CNN's website about a White man from Mississippi threatening on various chatrooms to assassinate Obama. At the same time, one of our neighbors, who we had hired to help us with yard work last summer, had started giving us the evil eye every time he saw us because he didn't like the fact that Obama was going to be our next president. People do expect a lot from leaders of their countries, and they criticize them for their policies. Ever since President Obama was inaugurated, I've heard various radio and television commentators say that they hoped that Obama failed as president. Many people did criticize former President George W. Bush for his foreign policies and the war in Iraq, and accused him for the down-spiraling economy. However, it seems that I've heard and personally met more people express their expectations and make their criticisms about Obama more than they have about any of the previous presidents of the United States. Many of their expectations of Obama were unrealistic and the criticisms were nothing but negative. Finally, there was the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, June 10. Some people were publicly and privately outraged either because they couldn't believe that this had happened and that there were still White Supremicists still out here in different countries espousing their rhetoric in various publications on and off the internet, or because it reminded them that racism, Nazism, and anti-Semitism was far from dead but just lurks beneath the surface like a shark constantly waiting for its pray. At the same time, there were those programs, like World Have Your Say on the BBC, who didn't discuss the topic on their call-in show because most of the bloggers on their website wanted to talk about something else altogether. This made me very angry. While the upcoming election in Iran was important on Thursday the 11th and Friday the 12th, and the protests in Iran after the election were important at the beginning of this week, I felt that the shooting at the Holocaust Museum was as equally important.
Two days ago, United States Attorney General, Eric Holder stated that he felt that the United States was a "coward" for not discussing race relations more than they do. Not only do I agree with him, but I feel that his assessment applies to all the countries of the world as a whole. We may not be able to stop all publications and other actions endorsing bigotry and hatred, but we can certainly, and should, discuss these issues more than we do in our homes and in public.
Linda (Makedah bat Leah).
Minnesota
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