I received a correspondence from a member of the Areivim list and it is terribly sad.
Last week, his adopted teenage black son’s rebbe happened to tell the
Shiur a racist joke on a day that his son was not in class. The punch line ended in the word "n....."
The rebbe was from a Yeshivish kehillah. The poster asks, “Is it that racist perspective was so ingrained in the rebbe that he didn't realize that he's poisoning the minds of his son’s peer group to think
less of him?
I think that’s probably right. How sad that a man who is in the noblest of Jewish professions, teaching our children Torah thinks nothing of perpetuating the racist mentality so prevalent in much of the Torah world. Many Orthodox Jews, especially on the East Coast are prejudiced against blacks. And it cuts across the entire demographic of Orthodoxy, from MO to Charedi. This does not of course mean that all O Jews think like this but a significant number do. It is patently wrong.
So the question arises, why is this case? Why is it that this most ethical people who aspire to do the will of God... so easily condescend to fellow human beings without distinguishing their individual merit? The Torah teaches us that each human being is created in the image of God. Why do we treat them with such contempt and ridicule?
There many answers to this question, I think. Some of it has to do with our self identity as the Am Bechira, the chosen people of God. In that sense we see ourselves as superior to all non-Jews. While it is true that we are God’s chosen ones and this is often used as an excuse to denigrate any non- Jew which is equally wrong, that cannot explain why minorities, particularly blacks are singled out for extra ridicule and contempt. But perhaps it is the starting point.
Another reason is the experience of many older Jews in an earlier time who were victimized by black criminals in changing neighborhoods. They then passed on a blanket prejudice to their children. The fact that there is a high incidence of black crime in poor black neighborhoods cannot be denied. There was an incident a few years ago where Jesse Jackson was relieved to see that a person following him at night was white and not black. Even he realized that the percentages of black violent crime is significantly higher than white violent crime.
But that still cannot explain the ridicule of all blacks by Frum Jews. It is one thing to acknowledge that there is a high crime rate amongst blacks. And there are probably a great many reasons why that is so, mostly having to do with a cultural mindset that has evolved and that has been perpetuated ever since the era of slavery. But fairly or not, the culture exists and it is steeped in violence and ignorance where formal education is looked at with disdain in many cases.
But I am getting off track. Statistics about crime rates tells us nothing about the innate qualities if the inner humanity of an individual. Those violent black criminals aren’t born that way. And that is a key point because racism assumes that they are born that way. The truth is that blacks are created B’Tzelem Elokim just like any other human being. There are many Black people who not only have decent values but have risern to great prominence and achievement. The Colin Powells and Condoleeza Rices of the world are proof of that. We do not have the right to think of them any differently than we do of whites. That we do is a condemnation of us, not of them.
And that brings me back to the rebbe and his racist Joke. In his mind, he has done nothing wrong. He was just bonding with his class. Well, maybe he was but at what cost? Not only was this rebbe wrong but he is instilling the same prejudices he has, into his students who look up to him as a role model.
I think it behooves us to take a hard look at what is being taught in the classrooms, not only in the curricular material but in the behavior of the Mechanchim. Children learn more from the behavior of a beloved teacher than they do from the material he teaches. Racism is sometimes part of that mix. I would hate to think that this attitude will forever be perpetuated in our schools by their Mechanchim. The opposite should be happening. We are supposed to be a light unto the nations, not a participant in their folly. We need to teach our children that people should be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
