Jews were a big part of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. In addition to the Quakers, Mennonites, and other liberal Christian groups, Jews were one of the primary groups of white America that supported the movement. They were on the Freedom Rides, and were part of Freedom Summer to register Black voters. They were beaten, arrested, and even killed, e.g. Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner (along with Black activist James Chaney).
As much as I have read about the movement, it is sometimes lost on me why Jews were part of the movement. Yes, I know about the Holocaust, and exclusions in housing, employment, politics, and social organizations. But it is easy to think about the roots of this as being religious in nature.
As Seth Abramson reminds us, Jews were once thought of as not white. From todays perspective, this is hard to imagine. But I remember studying it in school on my way to my BS in History. But let him tell it much better than I can.
Being identified as, and self-identifying as, non-white in the 1980s meant a lot more than just a quirk of semantics. Massachusetts, like most of New England, is almost all Christian and white. And in the 1980s, many Christian whites in New England found subtle ways to marginalize not only the few non-Caucasians in the region but also those, like local Jews, who could credibly be separated out from the "Anglo" majority. If a large number of my Jewish friends went to Hebrew School every Sunday, it was partly because, despite the relatively large Jewish population in Massachusetts -- 2.2% of all Americans are Jewish, but 4.3% of Bay Staters are -- we didn't always see our secular schools as safe spaces. Many of us felt like foreigners in our own towns.
On multiple occasions in elementary school, I was slipped papers in class with swastikas on them. Once, two of my closest friends used permanent marker to draw scores of tiny swastikas on their palms, then shoved them in my face at lunch as a "prank." More than one elementary school classmate explained to me that, while he didn't personally approve of the Holocaust, he recognized -- as should I -- that there was a long history of people from one race (his) disliking those of another (mine) and that I just needed to "accept it." Years later, when my high school made the state tournament in basketball and played a team from a town with a large Jewish population, my classmates threw bagels at the opposing players and their student supporters. Of course these are just a very few examples of the sorts of events which were, if not daily, routine enough that I never forgot for a moment that I was a Jew and therefore unlike (as a matter of "kind") almost everyone else in my hometown.
Bernie talks about how his growing up Jewish caused him to develop his political views. How his father’s family dying in Poland, and how he came to realize that politics was a serious thing. He has clearly stated that the Holocaust and how he was treated by non-Jews while growing up lead him to join the Civil Rights movement while at the U of C.
This is why when Clinton and her supporters try to swift boat Bernie on his civil rights record and how he has voted while in Congress is so outrageous. But again, Seth Abramson says it better than I ever could.
So I've watched with not just dismay but anger as the Clinton campaign has sought to convince Democratic voters, and particularly black voters in South Carolina, that Bernie Sanders not only wasn't involved in the Civil Rights movement but couldn't have understood the scourge of systemic, institutionalized racism even if he had been. Sure, much of Sanders' family was killed in the Holocaust, he grew up "non-white," and he'd be the first non-Christian President in American history, but isn't he just another out-of-touch white dude?
Of course, the truth is that Sanders was very involved in the Civil Rights movement, especially as compared to Hillary. A full year after Sanders was arrested in Chicago protesting housing segregation, Hillary was still a far-right "Barry Goldwater Girl" campaigning passionately for the late, notoriously anti-Civil Rights Act Senator from Arizona. If you haven't heard about this, it's only because the Sanders campaign has held off on the sort of smears we've seen from the Clinton campaign; while the Clinton camp was calling into question the authenticity of photos of Sanders from the 1960s -- even in the face of disagreement by those who took the photos -- Sanders and his camp stayed mum on the fact that Clinton was a Goldwater Republican into her early twenties, and supported a politician whose conspicuously racist "Southern strategy" included a long and vociferous opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Clinton is using race and civil rights as a wedge issue. She is now the greatest friend of Black people that ever was. And she is amazingly doing Karl Rove like tactics of using a person’s greatest strength against them. It boggles the mind.
Clinton has never truly left behind her core values that she had growing up. She fully believed in the “tough on crime” bullshit of the 90’s. Goldwater would have been proud of her calling people “super predators” and knowing full well that every white person new who the “super predators” were that she was talking about. Goldwater would have been proud of her work on destroying the safety net by getting rid of AFDC (which my family grew up on after my parents divorce).
Bernie needs to fight back on this shit. He needs to attack, yes attack, Clinton on her record in ads. He needs to connect the dots. And he needs to do ads showing him in handcuffs and being dragged away by the police.
While Clinton has no perspective of what Black people face every day. Bernie actually does. He knows how “outsiders” and “others” have been treated because he has faced it! Even though he doesn’t fear for his life every time he comes in contact with a cop, he knows what it is like to be arrested for fighting for what is right. He also knows from his families experience what it is like when the power of the state is used against a minority groups that is hated.
Bernie has all of this in his soul. Clinton not at all.
Friday, Feb 26, 2016 · 8:22:25 PM +00:00
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kaminpdx
Good grief. Being Jewish is more than a religious issue. It is an ethnicity issue, and by old standards (and some not so old standards) is a RACIAL issue. Jews were treated as if they were a different race than whites. That is the FUCKING POINT OF THE ARTICLE. So stop saying I, or other Sanders supporters, are interjecting RELIGION. Bernie supported the civil rights movement because from his background and perspective he was fighting for another minority racial group.
And since I am updating, I want to add a little of my own perspective. I have a last name that sounds Jewish, but is English in ancestor. I also have a nose that would make Henny Youngman blush. People have forever asked me if I was Jewish. I would say no, and they would comment on my name and my nose, almost always both, and would be surprised I wasn’t. They would almost always looked relieved I was not Jewish. An odd reaction I never knew how to interpret other than they had issues.