Jews and Money

When I was last in NY I had the unfortunate experience being in the presence of someone making an ignorant, but not malicious, racist comment. I had decided a number of years ago to not let these kinds of comments slip by unnoticed and tried, somewhat successfully, to explain the fault of their statement.

I followed up our conversation with this letter:

When Jews are labeled as good with money, stingy or gold hungry you are using the same stereotypes that were used in the Middle Ages. Jews were legally restricted to occupations as moneylenders, usually to Christians. This led to, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the association of Jews with greedy practices. 

So when you play into the stereotype of Jews being bankers and good with money you are reinforcing the stereotypes that have been pushed on Jews for over two millennia. This type of anti-Semitism continued throughout the centuries and reached a climax in the Third Reich and the Holocaust; in which 30 Einfeld's died alongside 6 million other individuals - 1.5 million of which were under 15. 

You might want to know that every Jew has had that stereotype pushed on them by people who are ignorant on this issue. That you contribute to this ignorance by repeating it. That Jews have been beaten up, sometimes by many people all at once, because of the continuation of this stereotype. So when you say it, it brings it all back up.

While I write about Jews in my letter the overal notion of how all too often stereotypes and the labels arise from violent histories that have worked to devalue others.

In a recent article on theconversation.edu.au Amelia Johns noted that -

"Some of the most harmful long-term effects of racism on individuals is not the hate-filled intent of the minority who engage in racial abuse. Though such experiences are rightly terrifying, the real harm is caused by the silence of the majority, who do nothing to stand up for victims but instead look away. The effect of this for the abuser is a sense of entitlement that they are representing the majority view. For the victim, it is a feeling that the majority somehow condone these acts, or at the very least are unmoved by them."

Do you fall into the same traps? Are you comfortable sitting quietly when someone makes ignorant statements about immigrants, arabs, women, gays or aboriginals?