Maybe it was…Growing up in the 50’s understanding via television that Amos and Andy, looked like whites, dressed in their suits had some kind of menial job, but were something to laugh at, because as much as they might want to be like white folk, they were not…OR when my father in the 50’s after having years of experience as a Military Police Officer and then a Beat Cop, was told since he was Jewish the only promotion he was entitled to was Sergeant of Police…OR viewing in the movies that at the most there were two kind of villains; the shyster lawyer, always Jewish, who would rip you off blind, or the homosexual who either was killed immediately because he was ‘light in the loafers”, or the self loathing homosexual at the ready to commit suicide…OR the evil spinster, the lady who wanted to live life without the comfort of a man, or the gal endowed with large breasts because she craved men…OR the white guys who played Charlie Chan, the white men who placed black face, or the maids, butlers and buffoons who were there to step and fetch for anyone not of color.
Maybe it was…working in Cleveland Georgia at a Jewish camp in the early 70’s going into town for our day off with a counselor who happened to be black, walking in to a Family Style restaurant and having almost the entire group of patrons hush up, the silence almost deafening, and the black counselor telling all us white folks, at least they can’t see a Jew…OR tutoring at an all black elementary school in the East Hills of Pittsburgh, being invited to a thank you dinner, only to find ourselves intimidated from some of the locals who didn’t like our coming into their neighborhood because we thought we were better than they…OR trying to hide what I thought was the awful truth, that I might be Gay, and hoping that no one would ever call me a Queer…OR insisting to my college friends as a Jew I have very little in common with Woody Allen…and won’t Jew them down.
Maybe it was working the extra week at the end of summer camp, with kids having disabilities, and the first time I did so, thinking I am doing them such a favor, poor kids with such bad luck…OR being told in my highs school that some kids from other neighborhoods were only kids of mill hunks, and bad news, thinking my life was of course better than theirs…OR being a Jewish kid, living in an affluent neighborhood, but living within the budget of a Pittsburgh COP…
I am not sure what it was, BUT whatever seeped into my psyche, permitted me to understand that difference, IS only scary if you continue to ignore the real lives of those we deem as different. I have gleaned, from my experiences insight from people I once considered as OTHERS, OR actually being the OTHER. THESE lessons stay with me, and encourage me to fight the Trump Campaign of bigotry…I will NOT permit the ignorance, the arrogance, the lack of human kindness from continuing to make my America GREAT! I proudly will resist the bogus bull shit which has become Trump’s version of America! I am my brother and sisters keeper, as they keep me.
