I had a flashback tonight to a situation I had earlier in life, thus the question.
I have heard stories from other Jewish folks, African American friends, etc. that met someone in college. for example, who had never met someone from their group before and the reaction ess...odd.
Growing up Jewish and gay, and a person with a string sense of identity thru oth I long ago realized I was in a minority group but growing up in a major metro area I was never the 1st gay or Jewish a person met.
I have a friend who is also Jewish who went to a Big 10 school in my state. He happened to meet someone from a small town in the UP who'd never met an actual Jewish person before. The whole time the other person kept looking intently at my friends hair, so much so he became self conscious.
He broached the subject to this other person about what was so interesting about his head or hair and the guy actually said he was trying to find where my friends horns were. You know because all Jews are children of satan and have horns.…
My encounter in such a situation was different.
I was 16 years old and was just being admitted to the hospital.i was being wheeled up to the elevator (this was at a local Catholic hospital) who remarked that though she had never met a Jewish person before that I could not be one since Jewish people never attempt suicide. I was so out of it and dumbfounded i did not know how to respond.
So if you are the member of a minority group did you ever have such a "memorial" encounter before?