Jmore Publisher Dr. Scott Rifkin

Dear Readers,

I had breakfast a couple of weeks ago with a wonderfully bright and talented physician. I have known him for years and he has always impressed me with his medical talent and thoughtful demeanor. The breakfast, for reasons I’ll explain, left me truly sad and troubled.

The doctor and I disagree on politics, but that’s not unusual as I tend to be on the liberal side of the aisle and he is a committed conservative. What troubled me is how different our narratives are and how little my friend recognized the inherent racism of his viewpoints. I understand lack of understanding in the uneducated, but to hear a highly educated and intelligent man have such uncaring and unfeeling viewpoints had an effect on me.

When we discussed racism and the problems of our city, he was of the opinion that the entire problem is too many fatherless children and that we needed to change the welfare and Medicaid rules. Essentially, we need to end programs that assist children and single moms. He believed that “black people” need to just get themselves together the way we Jews did.

The problem with all of this is revisionist history and a lack of understanding of the root cause of problems that afflict the socioeconomically disadvantaged.

After 200 years of slavery, many African-Americans were economically disadvantaged by various post-Civil War Jim Crow laws. When the Great Depression occurred, President Roosevelt proudly created various New Deal programs. Unfortunately, most of those programs intentionally excluded black people.

As they starved in the south, blacks came north to the big cities searching for jobs, food, education for their kids, etc. When they reached the cities, discrimination continued, jobs were scarce, wages were low, etc. The problems of poor communities and poor education — alcohol, drugs, poor family structure, crime, etc. – were the effect of generations of racism, not the original cause.

The thought that such problems can be solved easily by forcing worse poverty and starvation on children is naive and lacks an understanding of history. In an educated person, it is racist to prefer to believe such naive narratives.

To tell another story, I traveled to Israel a few years ago. In our same group was a prominent Jewish businessman. Over a period of a week, he used the term schvartze more than a dozen times. He told derogatory jokes about black people. When gently confronted, he said, “I was only joking.”
Would we feel the same about a non-Jew using the term kike or telling “Jew jokes”?

I grew up hearing fellow Jews respond to race issues with the flippant comments like, “Our people weren’t even here when that happened” or “ We pulled ourselves out of poverty so they can, too.” Again, these comments lack an understanding of history.

As Jews, we have a higher responsibility. We have been the victim. We have been turned away at the gates of democracy and watched our families murdered while “good people” sat on their hands. Our country has made progress on racism, but there is a long way to go.

The president and his apologists want to move in the other direction. Whether a liberal or conservative, we need to push for continued improvement of the treatment of the underclasses of our society. We are better Jews for such efforts.

Best Wishes,
Scott Rifkin, MD, Publisher

 

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