November 12, 2015
Mark H. Levin
I am watching prejudice explode, around the examinations of racism and anti-semitism at various universities, most notably MU.
The moral reaction to a claim of prejudice is for the individual being accused to examine the principles involved so that s/he understands what prejudice is and how it operates. And then the individual should examine his/her own behavior with regard to those principles, but also with regard to his/her sociological position, his/her psychological issues and predilections, and the anthropology of the culture in which the individual lives. So, for instance, I would have to say of myself:
1)Psychologically I was raised in a neighborhood and family that did not expose me to blacks except as lower class laborers, and although my family never spoke prejudicially, I received an sense of the inherent underclass status of blacks. This is something I have to fight against daily in order to treat everyone as equals and an image of God.
2) Sociologically I grew up in a neighborhood that emphasized the in-groupness of the Jewish community, with a sense that other communities were the "other." This involved both fear of those communities for possible anti-semitism, and a concomitant sense of superiority that went along with the fear, shortly after the Holocaust.
3)Anthropologically I grew up in a border state, Maryland, in which blacks were not entirely free even in the 1950s and 1960s. Our schools were segregated by neighborhoods and this had been the way the entire region was founded. Blacks were to be viewed with suspicion and awkwardness, and that's the way they viewed us as well.
The moral reaction to a claim of prejudice is for the individual being accused to examine the principles involved so that s/he understands what prejudice is and how it operates. And then the individual should examine his/her own behavior with regard to those principles, but also with regard to his/her sociological position, his/her psychological issues and predilections, and the anthropology of the culture in which the individual lives. So, for instance, I would have to say of myself:
1)Psychologically I was raised in a neighborhood and family that did not expose me to blacks except as lower class laborers, and although my family never spoke prejudicially, I received an sense of the inherent underclass status of blacks. This is something I have to fight against daily in order to treat everyone as equals and an image of God.
2) Sociologically I grew up in a neighborhood that emphasized the in-groupness of the Jewish community, with a sense that other communities were the "other." This involved both fear of those communities for possible anti-semitism, and a concomitant sense of superiority that went along with the fear, shortly after the Holocaust.
3)Anthropologically I grew up in a border state, Maryland, in which blacks were not entirely free even in the 1950s and 1960s. Our schools were segregated by neighborhoods and this had been the way the entire region was founded. Blacks were to be viewed with suspicion and awkwardness, and that's the way they viewed us as well.
Such an analysis, as instantaneous as this one has been, would have to be applied to my present situation as well, to understand my reaction to charges of prejudice, were they leveled against me.
In other words: I would have to examine the charges from various perspectives to determine if they were justified from my background, let alone the facts on the ground. Was it likely that I would be acting prejudicially without even intending to? What were the victims seeing or sensing in my actions that brought up the charges? That would be my concern.
Then an analysis of the facts on the ground would have to be pursued. What actually had occurred?
This is not what I am hearing from some people, or seeing on FB. Instead, I see people making charges of fraud against the victims who had to work for approximately 18 months to get anyone at the university to pay attention to their pleas, and the same with the press. They don't want to deal with the realities, and make that clear by striking out. It took stopping the car of the President of the University, and then he did not get out nor contact those who were forced to surround his car in order to get his attention, after many months of trying less challenging and more channeled means. It took feeling threatened both psychologically and physically in their own environment.
Rather than an examination, I see and hear people challenging the methods of the end game. Did he really fast the 8 days? Is it moral to force a man out of his job? Did the football coach do his job correctly when he sided with his players?
Rather than an examination, I see and hear people challenging the methods of the end game. Did he really fast the 8 days? Is it moral to force a man out of his job? Did the football coach do his job correctly when he sided with his players?
All of these are means of defending and furthering racism: blame the victim, and if that fails, challenge the methods of confrontation as immoral.
We saw this constantly in the sixties with Malcolm X and with Martin Luther King, Jr. People who don't want to actually deal with the claims of prejudice will find other means to deflect the real issue, until society turns to violence.
We saw this constantly in the sixties with Malcolm X and with Martin Luther King, Jr. People who don't want to actually deal with the claims of prejudice will find other means to deflect the real issue, until society turns to violence.
The non-violence of this past week is astounding, given the history of social strife in the U.S. And the level of intolerance, fraudulent challenges and in-group self-promoting is sickening. I lived through the sixties and witnessed the results. I thought we were done with this. Remember Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Bobby Kennedy were all assassinated over these issues.
I pray that both sides keep their eyes on the prize: a society in which inherent human prejudice is examined and dealt with consistently and with a vision of justice and compassion. Then "justice shall roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."
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