business & • rofessional
I Thought We Were Different
I
thought we were different. In fact,
I thought we were better. Ferguson
was the first trip back for
many of us to the tumultuous
times of the 1960s.
The Freedom Riders, George
Wallace blocking entry to
Alabama University, the assas-
sinations of President John F.
Kennedy, Martin Luther King
and Bobby Kennedy, the riots
— including our own in 1967.
We rode that storm and, even-
tually, civil rights laws, voting
protection and a foundation to
correct the offensive stench of
racism resulted.
Fifty years later, we have elected an
African American as president for two
terms in a country that is 12.6 percent
black and a white mayor in Detroit, a
city that is 83 percent black. I thought
the days of tear gas and rioting were
behind us. I was wrong — as demon-
strated by the unrest in Ferguson, New
York and Baltimore following the deaths
of African Americans in the midst of
apprehension by police authority.
What has gone wrong? There is no
doubt that African American
men are singled out by police
authorities. When driving, if
I see a cop I feel an anxiety
rush over concern about being
pulled over for speeding or
some other offense. I'm not,
however, thinking that I'm
going to be stopped because
I'm white or Jewish — I'm just
anxious that I'm going to be
delayed and financially incon-
venienced.
By contrast, if I were black,
my level of anxiety would take on a
whole new horizon.
Organized protests to effectuate
change are justified and part of our cul-
ture. I, like many, however, am angry
over the violence and rioting. As I see
it, the violence does nothing more than
to reinforce the bigoted perspectives of
those people who continue to believe
they are better than their black brethren.
I refer to "these people" as closet bigots.
On an individual basis, it can be any-
one — just like Donald Sterling — all
you need to do is look to the statements
they make in private. On a class basis,
many groups come to mind. Except
there was one class — Jews as a people
— that I excluded. After all, we under-
stand the notion of persecution and have
always been at the podium to denounce
such conduct and seek means to resolve
such maladies.
And then comes the eye opener. The
protests that ensued in Tel Aviv over
the beating of an Ethiopian IDF soldier
by an Israeli police officer was, at first
blush, shocking. Is it possible that Jews
would discriminate against fellow Jews
because of color or ethnic origin?
If the Ethiopian Jews are upset to the
point of violent protesting in the man-
ner we witnessed in Tel Aviv — there's
a reason, and it is not residing in those
that are protesting — it's vested in those
whose actions and conduct are of such
a nature that if done to us, we would be
angry and inclined to fight back.
If I were stopped while driving
because I had an Israeli bumper sticker
and the police officer spoke or even
inferred an anti-Semitic utterance, I
would burn until my blood boiled. How
dare he mistreat me based upon my
religion? So, if a fellow Jew is treated so
wrongfully that his blood is boiling at
the actions of fellow Jews, one thing is
certain — it is not based on his religion
— it is based on his color.
I'm disappointed to see we are as
guilty as the rest when it comes to closet
bigotry. As in business, gain can come
from learning from your mistakes in
the course of future conduct. The events
in Tel Aviv should be a reminder to all
people that the Golden Rule — "do unto
others" — remains the baseline to man
respecting man.
If we want to rid our country and our
people of the cancer of racial discrimina-
tion then we must stop analyzing the vic-
tims and begin to look at the issue from
the eyes of those who are objecting and
say, "How would I feel about that?"
❑
Ken Gross is an attorney with Thav Gross and
host of Law and Reality that airs weekly at
9 a.m. Saturdays on WDFN 1130 AM, noon on
Tuesday afternoons on WCHB 1200 AM/99.9
FM and 11a.m. Sundays on TV20.
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