What is Anti-Semitism?

http://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2014/04/05/reflections-on-anti-semitism-ask-a-high-school-student/

What is a Jew? I don’t suppose I can eat that either…
A Jew is a member of a group that traces their ancestry back to Biblical Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the book of Genesis. It is both an ethnic group and a religious group. It is possible to be Jewish and not be religious, and it is possible to be religiously Jewish and not ethnically Jewish. There are 13.4 million Jews alive today. The Jewish ethnicity has been traced genetically to those people living in Canaan (modern-day Israel) 5,000 years ago.

Jews do not speak Jewish. The religious language of the Jews is Hebrew (a Semitic language), which became extinct but was revived by the Zionists in the 20^th century as Modern Hebrew. Ancient Jews also spoke Aramaic (a Semitic language). Yiddish is a dialectical language formed similarly to Creole spoken by Jews who migrated to Central Europe. Ladino is another dialectical language spoken by Jews who migrated to Spain. These are the most common Jews dialects. There are many more.

The point being that Jews are a varied people and that this concept of monolithic anti-Semitism is fallacious. It is just as subtle and varied. Hatred is a slippery thing.

Why is anti-Semitism receiving all of this attention now?
There have been countless unreported incidents of anti-Semitism towards Jewish students at Bedford Public Schools for years; however recently there have been many reported incidents in rapid succession at more than one school, including swastikas drawn on the walls of the high school, a group of students texting swastikas to each other, and a game “Jail the Jews” proposed by two students at the elementary school level during a creativity exercise. Concerned parents are concerned; and they should be.

There Is No 'Palestinian-Israeli Conflict'

I Traveled to Palestine-Israel
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ferrari-sheppard/i-traveled-to-palestine_b_4761896.html

Paraphrased -



"When it comes to oppression, and one group has all the power and makes all the rules, and that group is "scratched" in a conflict, then there is a failure to understand the conflict."


"There is no conflict because the Israeli government controls everything… there is only power and those who resist it."

7 Things to Consider Before Choosing Sides in the Middle East Conflict
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-a-rizvi/post_8056_b_5602701.html
1. Why is everything so much worse when there are Jews involved?
2. Why does everyone keep saying this is not a religious conflict?
3. Why would Israel deliberately want to kill civilians?
4. Does Hamas really use its own civilians as human shields?
5. Why are people asking for Israel to end the "occupation" in Gaza?
6. Why are there so many more casualties in Gaza than in Israel?
7. If Hamas is so bad, why isn't everyone pro-Israel in this conflict?

Jewish And Arab People Are Posing Together In Inspiring Photos

Saying "We Refuse To Be Enemies"
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/jewish-and-arab-people-are-posing-together-in-inspiring-phot?utm_content=buffer0312b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Earlier this month, the Israeli news site Ynet reported that over 300 people protested the rocket attacks on Gaza by their government, saying that people were chanting one simple message: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.”

Examples of Anti-Jewish Incidents in Schools

Swastikas, Slurs and Torment in Town’s Schools
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/nyregion/swastikas-slurs-and-torment-in-towns-schools.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&

For some Jewish students in the Pine Bush Central School District in New York State, attending public school has been nothing short of a nightmare. They tell of hearing anti-Semitic epithets and nicknames, and horrific jokes about the Holocaust.

The mother, Sherri E., 48, asked her daughter to draw what she had seen, and realized it was a swastika. The mother testified that during a subsequent meeting, the elementary school principal at the time, Steve Fisch, agreed to talk with the boys but added: “What’s the big deal? They didn’t aim it towards her.” Mr. Fisch, in his deposition, denies saying that. 

Establishing a Town-wide Coordinating Committee in Wake of Anti-Semitic Incidents

http://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2014/04/03/establishing-a-town-wide-coordinating-committee-in-wake-of-anti-semitic-incidents/

Sills opened the meeting with a review of recent events, which he characterized as both “disappointing and exciting.”  Disappointing and disturbing was the fact that swastikas have continued to appear in various places in the high school, most recently on Tuesday.  On  more positive note, Principal Turner informed the group that students at the high school are “stepping up” and actively exploring a variety of ways to respond.

Racist, Sexist, and Class Oppressive Societies are Created Over Many Years

Racism is not defined as "individual acts of meanness."  All "-isms" are defined as a SYSTEM which advantages one group over another (sometimes this "advantage" is defined as "power").  Just as sexism advantages men over women and classism advantanges those "who have more than enough" over "those who do not have enough," racism advantages people of white European descent over people of color.  The term "people of color" is a political phrase grouping folks based on such categories as marginalization in society, ethnic minority status, and lack of power in the larger social structure of laws, politics, land owning, corporations, etc., not actual skin color, or actual "numbers" as the word "minority" might imply.

These ADVANTAGES or "privileges" are best defined by Peggy McIntosh in her paper , "White Privilege:  Unpacking the Inivisible Knapsack." http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf  They are not asked for, often unknown, and notoriously not noticed, however, they DO EXIST.  Power and privilege is created within a societal system.  Those that have it, don't typically notice unless it is pointed out.  Those that do not have it, know all too well what it looks like and what they can and cannot do or have access to.

A SYSTEM is when cultural norms benefit one group over another, as when Christian observances are marked on a calendar (or officially taken as a day off), but the same benefit (privilege) is not given to Jewish observances.

A SYSTEM is when laws (or rules) directly benefit one group, and not another.  Laws are particularly problematic because their impact can continue for generations.  For example, if your ancestors were taken from their land (African), or their land was taken from them (Native American), or they were not allowed to buy land (people of color) because of "red lining," then the advantages of owning land, building equity, using that equity to create a business or send a child to college, were not available.  The impact of land owning (or lack of it) trickles down from generation to generation.  

This video has an excellent summary of some legislation that advantaged people of white European descent, while disadvantaging people of color - and land owning is only a small part.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFjKQVZLk1g

World War II Perspectives Lesson

TOUR OF WWII * focusing on multiple perspectives

KEYPOINTS:

• We need to consider all the possible multiple perspectives and actively seek them out.  Then we need to make choices and think about why we want to include or exclude particular perspectives and what that means to the topic and to our students.
• When books don’t exist, it is our job as activists to find additional resources (internet) in order to present “missing voices” until a suitable book exists.
  
• Teacher-created summaries can meet the need of a more inclusive story AND also make the topic accessible to children with language limits – e.g., teachers can adjust language, print size, and readability level, computers can read text to students.
• See the summary samples below.

BOOK EXAMPLES:

The Unbreakable Code – Sara Hoagland Hunter

Passage to Freedom:  The Sugihara Story – Ken Mochizuki

I Am An American – Jerry Stanley

So Far From the Sea – Eve Bunting

The Bracelet – Yoshiko Uchida & Joanna Yardley

Those Incredible Women of World War II – Karen Zeinert

The Invisible Thread: The Powerful Memoir of a Girl Consigned to a Concentration Camp by The U.S. Gov’t – Yoshiko Ushida

Aleutian Sparrow – Karen Hesse

The Tuskegee Airmen – Jaqueline Harris

Baseball Saved Us – Ken Mochizuki

Number the Stars – Lois Lowry

Anne Frank:  The Diary of a Young Girl  – Anne Frank

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs – Jon Scieszka (example of multiple perspectives)

WWII - Native Americans

Carl Gorman died in February, 1998, he was 90 and the oldest of the 400 Navajo code talkers.  He was the father of artist R.C. Gorman from Taos, N.M.  He spent much of WWII in the Pacific on his belly at the front lines, a radio rather than a rifle in his hands, just as other Navajo volunteers did, making sure that the Japanese code crackers, who broke the Army, Navy, and Air Corps. codes, would never learn anything from intercepted Marine radio messages. 

Navajo is a language without an alphabet and with such a complex, irregular syntax that in 1942 it was estimated that outside of the 50,000 Navajos, no more than 30 other people in the world had any knowledge of it, none of them Japanese.  It was a wonder that Mr. Gorman or any other Navajos still spoke Navajo at all in the face of a long and concerted Federal campaign to suppress Indian languages.  He had once been chained to an iron pipe for a week because he insisted on speaking his native tongue. 

When the Japanese figured out that Marine radio operators were speaking Navajo and tried to torture a captured Navajo soldier, unfamiliar with the code, into translating messages, he was as much in the unknown as his Japanese captors.  He could tell them that cay-da-gahi meant turtle, but he had no idea that turtle meant tank.  The Navajo code, which was never broken, was considered so valuable that code talkers were not allowed to talk about it until 1969.

Source:  The New York Times, Obituary 2/1/1998

 

WWII - African Americans - Tuskegee

Adhering to its own policies of racial segregation, the U.S. Army Air Force had only one facility for Basic and Advanced Flight Training for Black pilots and that was at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, near Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which existed only as a result of a lawsuit brought by an African American who was refused for pilot training because of his race.

The “Tuskegee Experiment” was expected to “prove” racial deficiencies in intelligence and concentration, yet the Tuskegee Institute graduated 926 African-American pilots.  The 332nd Fighter Group was comprised of the 99th, 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons of the U.S. Army Air Corps.  The Red Tail Angels of the 332nd would end the war as the only fighter group in over 1,578 missions throughout Europe and North Africa to NEVER lose a bomber while escorting over 200 bombing missions.

American pilots were not expected to fly more than 50 missions or so before returning home, yet the Black American pilots - due of “lack of replacements” flew closer to 100 missions. They retuned home, the finest pilots in the U.S. and found themselves back in “Colored Only” lines.  In one case, more than a hundred Tuskegee Airmen Officers were arrested and court martialled for refusing to leave the segregated Officer’s Club at Freeman Field in Indiana.  Three years later (1948), President Truman officially desegregated the Armed Forces.

Sources:  http://www.grunts.net/afamerican/332ndfdg.html

http://www.world-wide-net.com/tuskegeeairmen/

WWII - Japanese Americans - Camps

As a result of the war with Japan, many people in he U.S. did not trust people of Japanese ancestry.  Even Japanese-Americans who were born in this country were mistakenly thought to be loyal to Japan.  On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible removal of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into concentration camps.  More than two-thirds of those relocated under this order were citizens of the United States, and none had ever shown any disloyalty.  In the entire course of the war, 10 people were convicted of spying for Japan, all of whom were White.

The definition of concentration camp is a place of confinement for political prisoners, which is what happened during WWII to Japanese Americans. To not use this language maintains the mythology that the U.S. has never had these types of prisons (and maintains the ideology that the U.S. is better than many other countries).  In addition, the term concentration camp is the one that was used by U.S. officials, including FDR, at the time.  The government quickly changed its *public* language in order to make the camps more acceptable. Roger Daniels (in his book "Japanese Americans: From relocation to redress") states, "internment is a well defined legal process by which enemy nationals are placed in confinement in times of war."  As he notes, the incarceration of Japanese immigrants and non-U.S. citizens immediately after Pearl Harbor was internment.  The imprisonment of almost 100,000 U.S. citizens because of how they looked and a more powerful group’s desire for economic gain does not fit the definition of internment. (Information in this paragraph from: Karen L. Suyemoto, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts - Boston)

On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that provided a Presidential apology and symbolic payment of $20,000 to the internees, evacuees, and persons of Japanese ancestry who lost liberty or property because of discriminatory action by the Federal government during WWII. 

Sources:

http://www.lib.Utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/9066.htm

http://www.usdoj.gov/kidspage/crt/redress.htm

WWII - Japanese Americans - Soldiers

The 100th Infantry battalion of Nisei (2nd generation Japanese-Americans) volunteers was formed in May, 1942.  By September, 1943, they were sent to Italy where they saw fierce combat and came to be known as the “Purple Heart Battalion” because of their high casualty rate.

Due to the stunning success of Nisei in combat, the draft was reinstated in January, 1944 for Nisei in the detention camps to bolster the ranks of the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team.  The 100/442nd became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.  There were over 18,000 individual decorations for bravery, 9,500 Purple Hearts, and seven Presidential Distinguished Unit Citations.

It was the 100/442nd that liberated the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

Source:  www.nikkeiheritage.org/research/442html

WWII - African Americans - Overseas

Like other Allied forces that landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, they faced the German enemy on the beach in front of them. Their role on D-Day isn't well-known. One black face appears briefly in the movie "The Longest Day"; none is seen in "Saving Private Ryan." Most histories of the climactic assault on Normandy also fail to notice that black soldiers were there.

In fact, blacks were among the assault troops that June 6, and one unit was responsible for maintaining barrage balloons over the beachhead that protected troops landing.

The Stars and Stripes newspaper in 1944 reported that the unit suffered casualties setting up the balloons, which were floated across the English Channel on invasion day. Army photographers recorded black troops in operations liberating French villages around the beaches, and stories of the time cited black troops who were awarded medals for bravery and meritorious duty.

The exact number of blacks involved in the D-Day landings is unknown, as is the number of casualties. He estimates that from 1,500 to 2,000 of the 57,000 troops involved were black. The Army didn't record racial or ethnic differences when counting the dead.

Sources: 

startribune.com

Remembering Role of Black GIs on June 6, 1944 by Lance Gay

Scripps Howard News Service, Published May 30, 2004

  

WWII - Mexican Americans - Bracero

On August 4, 1942, the U.S. and the Mexican governments instituted the Bracero program.  Thousands of impoverished Mexican farm workers abandoned their rural communities and headed north to the southwestern part of the U.S. to work the fields once harvested by Americans who were off to war.  The Bracero could return to their native lands in case of an emergency, only with written permission from their boss.  When their contract expired, the Bracero were required to turn in their permits and return to Mexico.   The Bracero suffered harassment and oppression from extremist groups and racist authorities.

The Bracero were a very experienced farm labor who became the foundation for the development of North American agriculture.  The program under which more than three million Mexicans entered the U.S. to labor in the agricultural fields ended in 1964.

Source:  http://www.farmworker.org/bracerop.html

WWII - American Women - Soldiers & Nurses

An average female clerical salary was only $850 per year, few could afford the $750 required for obtaining a pilot’s license, unless they had family backing. Over 25,000 women applied to be WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilot), yet only 1,839 of that number were accepted and only 1,074 received their silver wings.  Although all of those applying had some previous flight training and many were already licensed pilots, few survived the rigorous screening and training standard set up for the WASP.

WASPs flew U.S. military aircraft during WWII in a special program designed to free male pilots for overseas duty.  Female pilots utilized their skills to transport new war birds from the factories to needed airfields.  With the enormous losses of male aviators, there were now more planes available than pilots to fly them, especially for ferrying duties.  These women often transported top secret documents, including parts for assembling the world’s first atomic bomb.  They offered both basic and instrument instruction to men and even flew highly classified experimental aircraft such as the first jets. 

Many female pilots were mistaken for mail carriers, flight attendants, boat captains, doormen, and even as members of another country's military because uniformed women soldiers were so rare.

Women were also military nurses.  With a nudge from Eleanor Roosevelt, the Navy began authorizing a Women’s Naval Reserve and the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve.  These women were WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services).  The WAAC (Women’s Army auxiliary Corps) was changed to the WAC establishing it as part of the Army and not an auxiliary by a second bill in July of 1943, signed by President Roosevelt. 

In July of 1944, WACs landed on the beach at Normandy.  There were over one hundred thousand women in uniform at this point in time.

Sources: 

http://www.womenofcourage.com/guide.htm

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets5.html

WWII - Mexican Americans - Soldiers

On March 14, 1944, President Roosevelt agreed to accept the participation of one or two Mexican air squadrons.  This event marked the first time the Mexican troops were trained for combat.  

Although only in the Philippines for six months, the squadron actively participated in 59 combat missions totaling over 1,290 hours of flight.  They successfully participated in the Allied effort to bomb Luzon and Formosa in an attempt to push the Japanese out of the islands.  Assigned to the 58th Fighter group of the U.S. 5th Air Force, the “Aztec Eagles” were also used as ground support after the aerial threat from Japan weakened.

Source:  http://www.utexas.edu/projects/latinoarchives/narratives/vol1no2/ESCUADRON_201/ESCUADRON_201.HTML

WWII - American Women - “Production Soldiers”

In July 1941, the American Red Cross called upon “every woman and girl in Huntsville and Madison County, Alabama who knits, crochets, or sews“ to cooperate in meeting the deadline for completing the area’s assigned quota of sewing.  In addition to sewing and winding bandages, the female inhabitants were active participants in the civilian defense effort.

In April 1942, the University of Alabama offered a course in chemical laboratory techniques for-women-only; those who desired to qualify for jobs in defense laboratories.  While many male factory workers went to war, at the Huntsville Arsenal, black and white men did the heavy work, while white females were employed for production work.  No demand was made for large numbers of black females until the local labor market was exhausted of white females.

Pay was not equal.  For examples, men who worked in mustard gas production were paid $5.76 daily, while women were paid $4.40.  The principle of “equal pay for equal work,” adopted by the War Labor Board in 1942 was subsequently implemented at arsenals as part of the basic War Department philosophy of wage administration.  Even lingering doubts about the suitability of hiring black women for defense work were soon overridden by the pressing need to meet production demand.

The movement toward all female work crews was a gradual one, particularly in those areas where women had never been assigned duty.  But by 1943, a women supervisor and her “all female crew of 15” had acquired the reputation for being “one of the most efficient crews at the arsenal.”  By May 1944, Huntsville peaked in employing 6,707 men and women, 63% male (11% were black, 52% white) and 37% female (11% were black, 26% white)

Redstone Arsenal implemented its first reduction in force in June 1945, when about 200 employees were terminated, mostly black women.  By October, the number of female production employees was reduced to zero.  Huntsville Arsenal placed 500 operations employees, almost all women, on a 90 day furlough in August 1945, then continued a layoff through September. The reason given for this decision was based on the belief that women were “not suited for transfer to the heavy work.”

Source:  http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/women/welcome.html

WWII - Jewish Experience in Germany

The beginning of the Second World War brought millions of non-German Jews under German rule, mostly in Poland. But still no clear concept existed about what to do with them. In Poland the SS often forced Jews to live in ghettos, most prominently in Warsaw and Kracow, and resettled them in big cities or along railroad lines. The official policy was still expulsion and exclusion from the rest of society, not extermination, but shootings occurred, and living conditions in the ghettos were so terrible as to produce a high mortality.

But in the fall of 1941 the SS constructed death factories with gas chambers. A Europe-wide extermination program started. In the following three years the remaining Jews from Germany and all occupied countries were rounded up, put into freight trains, and driven across Europe to the death camps in Poland, most notably Auschwitz, Maidanek, and Treblinka. There the survivors of the transports were led to a ramp on which Nazi doctors separated the most fit and sent them to the work camps right next to the extermination camps. The others were led into windowless chambers. After they had undressed (presumably to take a shower), gas dropped in from the ceiling and killed them within minutes. Most of those who had to work did not survive either.

Besides Jews, the "death factories" also killed opponents of the regime (German and non-German), Gypsies, Russian prisoners of war, and many other innocent people. The gruesome mass murder intensified toward the end of the war, as Hitler believed that the extermination of the Jews would be his lasting "achievement" in history and that future generations would be grateful. The Holocaust claimed roughly six million Jewish victims. Around five million other people were killed as well, including between two and three million Soviet prisoners of war, many gypsies, German resisters, communists, homosexuals, and other groups. The death machinery worked as long as German troops held Poland. When the Russians advanced in late 1944, the SS destroyed the death camps and the relating documents (making the task of historians to establish exact numbers and procedures more difficult).

Sources: 

http://www.colby.edu/personal/r/rmscheck/GermanyE4.html

http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/Holocaust.html

WWII - Aleut Internment

In response to Japanese aggression in the Aleutians, U.S. authorities evacuated 881 Aleuts from nine villages. They were herded from their homes onto cramped transport ships, most allowed only a single suitcase. Heartbroken, Atka villagers watched as U.S. servicemen set their homes and church afire so they would not fall into Japanese hands. 

The Aleuts were transported to Southeast Alaska and there crowded into "duration villages": abandoned canneries, a herring saltery, and gold mine camp-rotting facilities with no plumbing, electricity or toilets. The Aleuts lacked warm winter clothes, and camp food was poor, the water tainted. For two years they would remain in these dark places, struggling to survive. Illness of one form or another struck all the evacuees, but medical care was often nonexistent, and the authorities were dismissive of the Aleuts' complaints. Pneumonia and tuberculosis took the very young and the old. With the death of the elders so, too, passed their knowledge of traditional Aleut ways.

Despite their poor treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, twenty-five Aleut men joined the Armed Forces. Three took part in the U.S. invasion of Attu Island, and all were awarded the Bronze Star.

The Attuans suffered severe deprivation during the war. For three years, they were imprisoned in the city of Otaru on Hokkaido Island, subsisting almost soley on rice. What the war had not done, a stroke of the pen had accomplished – four communities had met with extinction. Those villagers allowed to reoccupy their homes found them ravaged by the weather and vandalized by U.S. servicemen, the windows smashed, doors and furniture gone. Worse still was the theft of religious icons and subsistence equipment – boats and rifles. Some Aleut worked until their hands bled to repair the damage that had been done, but it would take years to recover, to fashion new communities and a new order for themselves. Politicized by their stay in the camps, the Aleut began the long battle for restitution. The evacuation had taken place for humanitarian reasons, but racism too had played a role in their abrupt evacuation and poor treatment in the camps.

It would be forty years until restitution would be made, but on August 10, 1988 Public Law 100-383 was signed calling for financial compensation and apology from Congress and the President in behalf of the American people.

Source:  http://www.nps.gov/aleu/ForKids.htm

WWII - Gay/Lesbian Experience

The history of the pink triangle begins before WWII, during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Paragraph 175, a clause in German law prohibiting homosexual relations, was revised by Hitler in 1935 to include kissing, embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts. Convicted offenders -- an estimated 25000 just from 1937 to 1939 -- were sent to prison and then later to concentration camps. Their sentence was to be sterilized, and this was most often accomplished by castration. In 1942 Hitler's punishment for homosexuality was extended to death.

Each prisoner in the concentration camps wore a colored inverted triangle to designate their reason for incarceration, and hence the designation also served to form a sort of social hierarchy among the prisoners. A green triangle marked its wearer as a regular criminal; a red triangle denoted a political prisoner. Two yellow triangles overlapped to form a Star of David designated a Jewish prisoner. The pink triangle was for homosexuals. A yellow Star of David under a superimposed pink triangle marked the lowest of all prisoners -- a gay Jew.

Although homosexual prisoners reportedly were not shipped en masse to the death camps at Auschwitz, a great number of gay men were among the non-Jews who were killed there. Estimates of the number of gay men killed during the Nazi regime range from 50,000 to twice that figure. When the war was finally over, countless many homosexuals remained prisoners in the camps, because Paragraph 175 remained law in West Germany until its repeal in 1969.

In the 1970's, gay liberation groups resurrected the pink triangle as a popular symbol for the gay rights movement. In the 1980's, ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) began using the pink triangle for their cause. They inverted the symbol, making it point up, to signify an active fight back rather than a passive resignation to fate.

One additional note:  Alan Turing was a gay mathematician and THE founding father of computer science who was instrumental in the British war effort during World War II. After the war, he was convicted of having homosexual sex and forced to undergo drug and hormone treatments.

Source:  http://www.wright-counseling.com/Safezone/safezonesymbols.htm

Diversity: A Reflection by Claudia A. Fox Tree

Anti-Semitic Intolerance Forum - Letter to Editor
http://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2014/04/03/diversity-a-reflection-by-claudia-fox-tree/
First published in The Bedford Citizen on April 3, 2014

I just came from the follow up public forum about “Anti-Semitic Intolerance for those interested in turning suggestions into actual programs and practices.”  I know Mr. Sills wanted to have break out groups that could take ideas and begin putting them into action, however, it was clear that the folks who came wanted to discuss topics as a large group. Bedford High School students spoke eloquently and many ideas emerged that I’m sure will be communicated to all by the Superintendent.  I wanted to take up one of the suggestions – to write to The Citizen.  There are some related issues, not discussed tonight, that I wanted to highlight.

Given the title of the forum, I am compelled to reiterate that using the word “tolerance” is highly problematic. When it comes to talking (or writing) about diversity, no one wants to be “tolerated”?  In a world of anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, able-ism, etc., there are the “Haves” and “Have-not’s.”  And, you can guess in which category the “tolerated” fall.  I would suggest calling these activities what they are, “Anti-Semitic Hate Crime Forums” or “Creating A Place at the Table for All.”

Undoing the impact of the oppression that is connected to an “ism” is complex.  It is not simply about “celebrating diversity” or even “honoring differences.”  That may (or may not) be a good place to start, but it is simply is not enough. One of the few things we can “control” and change immediately to create a better world responsive to cultural differences is our choice of language.  Language has power and we need to be careful and thoughtful with the words we use for they will be heard by others, and they can reinforce oppressions or work toward social change and justice.

A glance around the room, which was quite full, holding a large circle of constituents, revealed a noticeable absence of other marginalized group members from town.  For example, no one spoke up who identified as Muslim, Chinese, Asian Indian, Buddhist, African American, or Thai, to name a few, and I know that these communities are also representative of Bedford.  Why didn’t they come to tonight’s meeting? How many times do people from these groups deal with prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, etc. related to their group membership, and feel no systemic response? Are there public forums or educational opportunities for them?  We need to consider that responding so publically to anti-Semitism now, may bring up hurtful memories for others who have not seen their issues and concerns addressed in the past.  Perhaps, there needs to be more reaching out to specific groups within the larger community?   

As a Native American, my own experience has revealed an uphill battle.  It is difficult to keep educating others about the Native culture while also dealing with racism, at worst, and stereotypes, at best, on a monthly, if not weekly basis.  Just this passed week, one of my children was asked to do “Indian Sprints.” While not a hate crime, as what the Jewish community is currently experiencing, it is an example of how easy it is to say inappropriate and offensive things.  Without education, role-playing, practice, and conversation, “blurts” like this happen over and over again.  Bedford would be remiss in not addressing broader issues of unawareness and perpetuation of stereotypes, given the context of what is currently happening.  This is a wake up call to build allies within our community – active bystanders who speak up on behalf of others and model for the future generations that we are a place that not only responds to differences in culture and celebrates diversity, but does not accept oppression in any of its many forms.

This past fall, Bedford's Varsity Football team faced Pentucket.  There were racist caricatures of Native Americans via mascots, logos, and stylized non Native music being called Native.  It was awful.  This is not something that would be allowed for other ethnic or racial groups and, yet, it has been so “normalized” within the NFL that there were no forms of protest from Bedford.  The "mascot issue" was problematic enough, however, my football-playing son was also spotlighted by name in a negative way (due to his heritage) in the Cape Cod Times when the Varsity team was about to play on the south shore!  It was through friends and allies that a flood of emails forced the Times to remove the article within hours of its posting.  We have to stand up as one, against all forms of hatred, or fall because we are too divided to come together.

I am concerned that a comparative religion course planned at the high school would highlight three Judeo-Christian religions and Hinduism, but not Buddhism, Confucianism, or more contemporary religions like the Quakers or Baha'i.  I am concerned that students are asking for more conversations and report that teachers aren’t prepared to have them.  I’m concerned that Senior Prom was scheduled on a Jewish holy day this year.

How many times have baked goods been sold during Passover at a school event?  How many times have football games been held on Friday nights?  While not Native American issues, that these events conflict with Jewish traditions reminds me that we have a long way to go in truly opening up a place at the table where everyone can not only share and express their culture, but be able to be present at the table because they can actually attend since it does not conflict with a cultural tradition.  We need to consider a calendar that takes into account conflicts of culture, maybe not every time, but more times than it does now. 

I want to close by saying that it is not really the job of the oppressed to educate those with the power to make change.  It is the responsibility of those with the power to educate our/themselves, and respond accordingly, making space for all voices on an equal playing field.  If the “Have’s” aren’t willing to give up some of what they have, then there will always be “Have-nots.”  It’s not as easy as saying, “Work a little harder” or “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”  Women have worked really hard, but it was not until that first man in the boardroom hired a woman, giving up being surrounded by his own gender, that women were able to access traditional male dominated occupations.  Have-nots can work as hard as Have’s, but not have the same access without an ally.

UPDATE:  http://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2015/09/04/reflection-bedford-embraces-diversity/

Claudia Fox Tree, veteran Native American educator, was an active participant in the aftermath of the episodes. She applauded the response of the public schools.

“Jon (Sills) took a risk to ‘go public’ and allow a window into what was happening in Bedford,” she said. “He forged a relationship with social justice organizations; provided much needed professional development for faculty and staff; built relationship with community organizations; revised curriculum K-12; and improved the Peer Leaders programs.   He also established a K-12 Equity and Diversity Support Group of teachers who are/will be leaders with these particular initiatives.  What is amazing is that he did it in just over one year.”

“The evidence that I can see is that initiatives are working,” Fox Tree observed. “On the other hand, some issues are long standing and have not had the attention they deserved.” Referencing the student video, she said, “African-American students have been reporting issues for years and felt unheard.  They were, justifiably, angry when the concerns by the Jewish community were made public, with forums, town-wide support, and almost instant action. “

“If we don’t understand the true issue, it can never really be addressed, and will keep coming around again and again,” she continued. “When a story becomes about the ‘politics’ instead of the pain and hardships that students of color experience in their community, then we need to take a closer look.  Jon (Sills) set up a climate where kids feel like they can finally talk, and that’s what you’re getting — the voices of kids of color.  This is actually a very good thing! We need to listen.”

For some, steep odds to find a bone marrow match

For some, steep odds to find a bone marrow match
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2013/08/20/awaiting-transplant-cancer-patient-chances-depend-her-korean-heritage/oXksbeVUYTNez8KcaS6trM/story.html
Now, the 40-year-old’s Korean heritage has suddenly become central to her life in a way she never expected. After being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in July, Manocchio-Putney faces a disturbing reality shared with many minorities in the United States — getting a bone marrow donation to save her life will be much harder for her than it would be for one of her two Caucasian siblings.

While 93 percent of Caucasians are able to find a match among the 10.5 million potential donors registered nationwide, the likelihood of finding a match is lower for Asian-Americans — 73 percent — said Chris Mulcahy, northeast district supervisor for Be the Match, which oversees marrow drives and registries.

And it’s even more difficult for mixed-race individuals, African-Americans, and some subsets of Asian-Americans, particularly South Asians, to find a match, said Dr. Joseph Antin, chief of stem cell transplantation at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Bone marrow donors must have similar genetic history to recipients, Antin said. Though race has no genetic basis, the genes that determine the success of transplanted cells, called human leukocyte antigens, correlate with individuals’ ethnic backgrounds.

Humans developed distinct resistances to pathogens depending on what diseases proliferated in which parts of the world, meaning different ethnic groups evolved with different HLA genes. 

That genetic diversity in human leukocyte antigens makes it hard for everyone to find a bone marrow match. But it’s even tougher for people of Asian and African descent, because the more diverse an individual’s evolutionary history is, the harder it becomes to find a match. Since populations in Africa and Asia developed in the face of some of the most diverse conditions, many of its people have unique genetic types.

But sometimes, in cases like Manocchio-Putney’s, one individual’s case can generate enough momentum to expand the registry. For many years, Antin said, it was nearly impossible to find bone marrow matches for Ashkenazi Jews, whose families came from Europe. When one such Jew got sick, the community mobilized, and now many are registered as potential donors.

QUOTES FROM Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

by James W. Loewen. Simon & Schuster, 1995

"Historically, American Indians have been the most lied-about subset of our population" (99).

Did Europeans "civilize" the Americas? Actually, anthropologists tell us that "hunters and gatherers were relatively peaceful, compared to agriculturalists, and that modern societies were more warlike still. Thus violence increases with civilization" (101-2).

"..textbooks cannot resist contrasting "primitive" Americans with modern Europeans" (102).

"In what ways do we prefer the civilized Third Reich to the more primitive Arawak nation that Columbus encountered? If we refuse to label the Third Reich civilized, are we not using the term to imply a certain comity? If so, we must consider the Arawaks civilized, and we must also consider Columbus and his Spaniards primitive is not savage" (102).

"Europeans persuaded Natives to specialize in the fur and slave trades. Native Americans were better hunters and trappers than Europeans, and with the guns the Europeans sold them, they became better still. Other Native skills began to atrophy" (103).

"..because whites "demanded institutions reflective of their own with which to relate," many Native groups strengthened their tribal governments... New confederations and nations developed.. The tribes also became more male- dominated, in imitation of Europeans.. [there was] an escalation of Indian warfare... [the slave trade helped] to deagriculturize Native Americans. To avoid being targets for capture, Indians abandoned their cornfields and their villages" (105-6).

"Europeans did not "civilize" or "settle" roaming Indians, but had the opposite impact" (107).

"…from the start in Virginia.. settlers fled to Indian villages rather than endure the rigors of life among the autocratic English. Indeed, many white and black newcomers chose to live an Indian lifestyle... some Natives chose to live among whites.. The migration was mostly the other way, however.. Europeans were always trying to stop the outflow. Hernando De Soto had to post guards to keep his men and women from defecting to Native societies... right up to the end of independent Indian nationhood in 1890, whites continued to defect, and whites who lived an Indian lifestyle, such as Daniel Boone, became cultural heroes in white society" (109).

"Not one American history textbook mentions the attraction of Native societies to European Americans and African Americans" (109).

"According to Benjamin Franklin, "All their government is by Counsel of the Sages. There is no Force; there are no Prisons, no officers to compel Obedience, or inflict Punishment." Probably foremost, the lack of hierarchy in the Native socieites in the eastern United States attracted the admiration of European observers. Frontiersmen were taken with the extent to which Native Americans enjoyed freedom as individuals. Women were also accorded more status and power.. than in white societies of the time" (109-110).

Lt. Gov. Cadwallader Colden of New York in 1727 said, "Here we see the natural Origin of all Power and Authority among a free People" (110).

"Indeed, Native American ideas may be partly responsible for our democratic institutions. We have seen how Native ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality found their way to Europe to influence social philosophers such as Thomas More, Locke, Montaigne, Montesquieu, and Rousseau... Through 150 years of colonial contact, the Iroquois League stood before the colonies as an object lesson in how to govern a large domain democratically" (111).

"Both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention referred openly to Iroquois ideas and imagery... As a symbol of the new United States, Americans chose the eagle clutching a bundle of arrows. They knew that both the eagle and the arrows were symbols of the Iroquois League... John Mohawk has argued that American Indians are directly or indirectly responsible for the public-meeting tradition, free speech, democracy, and "all those things which got attached to the Bill of Rights." Without the Native example, "do you really believe that all those ideas would have found birth among a people who had spent a millennium butchering other people because of intolerance of questions of religion?"" (111-112).

"For a hundred years after our Revolution, Americans credited Native Americans as a source of their democratic institutions... When colonists took action to oppose unjust authority, as in the Boston Tea Party.. they chose to dress as Indians, not to blame Indians for the demonstrations but to appropriate a symbol identified with liberty" (112).

"Indian warfare absorbed 80 percent of the entire federal budget during George Washington's administration and dogged his successors for a century as a major issue and expense... [in many cases] the settlers were Native American, the scalpers white" (116).

"All the textbooks tell how Jefferson "doubled the size of the United States by buying Louisiana from France." Not one points out that it was not France's land to sell--it was Indian land... Indeed, France did not really sell Louisiana for $15,000,000. France merely sold its claim to the territory... Equally Eurocentric are the maps textbooks use to show the Lewis and Clark expedition. They make Native American invisible, implying that the United States bought vacant land from the French... [Textbooks imply that the Indians were naive about land ownership, but] the problem lay in whites' not abiding by accepted concepts of land ownership" (123).

"The most important cause of the War of 1812.. was land-- Indian land... The United States fought five of the seven major land battles of the War of 1812 primarily against Native Americans... [a] result of the War of 1812 was the loss of part of our history. A century of learning [from Native Americans] was coming to a close... until 1815 the word Americans had generally been used to refer to Native Americans; after 1815 it meant European Americans... Carleton Beals has written that "our acquiescence in Indian dispossession has molded the American character." ... destroyed our national idealism. From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy, we exported the ideology of white supremacy. Gradually we sought American hegemony over Mexico, the Philippines, much of the Caribbean basin, and, indirectly, over other nations... We also have to admit that Adolf Hitler displayed more knowledge of how we treated Native Americans than American high schoolers who rely on their textbooks. Hitler admired our concentration camps for Indians in the west "and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination--by starvation and uneven combat" as the model for his extermination of Jews and Gypsies" (123-126).

Yet we "still stereotype Native Americans as roaming primitive hunting folk, unfortunate victims of progress" (132).

For more on this topic, read Helen Hunt Jackson's famous indictment of Native American policies, A Century of Dishonor.

Also, see her fictional account of the racism Mexicans and Indians both endured at the hands of White and Mexican settlers, Ramona.

More quotes from the book are here:  http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/First_Thanksgiving_LMTTM.html

Thanksgiving quotes from the book are here: http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2007/11/lies-my-teacher-told-me-everything-your.html

GREAT LESSON PLANS FOR THE BOOK HERE:  http://liesmyteachertoldme.wikispaces.com/home

Photo Gallery: 20 Memorials to Native Americans
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/gallery/photo/photo-gallery-20-memorials-native-americans-155013

50 Examples of Stereotypes

These examples of racial and ethnic stereotypes cross nationalities and religions too. Asians, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Russians, Jews, Canadians, Arabs, and many more.  Listen to the music attached to each set of images.  Think about the following questions?

• Did you recognize the music or image associated with the group?
• Where (and when) did you learn it?
• Do you have other images or songs for this group, or has your experience been limited to the visuals/music you see/hear here?
• What happens when an entire group of people is only known by a particular image, song, dance, or symbol?  
• Can a group of people be captured that easily?
• What can you say about "Americans"?