RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE LIVES OF MINORITIES

Cois, an old friend, and I have been discussing our experiences with discrimination in this country. We talked mainly about the treatment of blacks, as well as my experiences with anti-Semitism. From my point of view, it mainly boils down to this: Minorities that continually see themselves as victims will not rid themselves of the misery in their lives.

I was fortunate in that I only spent a few years in New York as a young boy. Why? Because I found out quickly that there was a lot of anti-Semitism, and it came mostly from blacks. Even today, blacks constitute the largest group of anti-Semites in this country, despite the fact that liberal Jews were very prominent in the struggle of blacks for civil rights. But there was plenty of white anti-Semitism too. I personally saw several apartment complexes with signs that read: NO JEWS OR DOGS ALLOWED. Banks (unless they were Jewish owned) and insurance companies in New York refused to hire any Jews.

In the fifties, after I returned to live in New York, I still experienced some anti-Semitism. An old army buddy took me to a basketball game at Madison Square Garden between St. John’s University and City College of New York. Because he was a graduate of St. John’s, I had the misfortune of sitting in the midst of SJU fans, with many shouting ‘kill those damn Jews’ and ‘kill the kikes.’ (CCNY’s basketball team was representative of the school’s large Jewish enrollment.)

Around the same time, Irving Cohen asked me to look after Chief Gordon House, a good lightweight fighter that he managed. Irving wanted me to make sure that Gordon House, an Indian from Oklahoma and Texas, did not get drunk while he was in New York, a Herculean task for me. As we were passing by an Irish bar near Times Square, the Chief insisted we stop by for some beer. I agreed only on the condition that we would have just one beer.

At the bar he told the bartender, ‘Draw two for my friend K… and me.' The bartender ordered us out, shouting that ‘We don’t serve any God damn fucking Jews in here!’ Gordon House instantly grabbed the bartender, dragged him across the bar and proceeded to beat the supreme shit out of him. If I hadn’t used all my strength to pull him off, he might have killed the asshole. The Chief was not pissed because we were going to be thrown out – he was pissed because he felt bad for me.

On the other hand, I never experienced any anti-Semitism during the years I spent in Ardmore, Oklahoma and Marshall, Texas. I think that was because there were only a few Jews in those small towns. Daube’s Department Store, the most prominent business in Ardmore, was Jewish owned. My father worked there as a shoe salesman. In Marshall, where I went to high school, Louis Kariel was mayor for years and years. He was the Jewish owner of the small shoe store where my father worked.

I did experience some anti-Semitism when I lived in Riverside. The San Bernardino police chief and I were close buddies. He proposed me for membership in the San Bernardino Elks Lodge, but they told him no way because the lodge did not accept any Jews. (Later the Riverside Elks Lodge accepted me after a couple of FBI agent friends proposed me for membership.)

And a doctor friend invited my wife and me to spend one weekend with him and his wife at an exclusive members-only resort he belonged to near Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead. Several days later he had to take back the invitation. Apologizing, he told me that all members had to submit the name and background of any proposed guests to the resort's trustees for approval. He was told that I had a Jewish name and that no Jews were allowed on the grounds of the lodge. (My friend promptly withdrew his family membership.)

One of the problems for Jews is that we are all perceived to have gotten rich at the expense of the disadvantaged. That is at the root of black anti-Semitism. While wealthy Jews get a lot of publicity - leaving the impression that all Jews are rich - the majority of Jews are not rich and quite a few actually live below the poverty line. As for those members of that exclusive lodge near Big Bear, they were among the wealthy gentiles who regard Jews as an inferior race.

After coming to the good old USA, my father worked hard to provide our family with food, clothing and shelter, but he never made more than a modest income. As for my wife and me, we are far from being rich.

The reason many Jews have done well in this country is because Jewish families have traditionally emphasized the importance of an education, something blacks have failed miserably to do. And blacks have been victimized as much by those two poverty pimps, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as they have been by whites and the white power structure.

I've known plenty of blacks who were smart, hardworking and excelled in schools and colleges, as well as in their chosen professions. It's a shame that bigots choose to latch onto negative stereotypes instead of onto the achievements of individuals within any distinctive group.

It was my experience that there was just as much, if not more, discrimination against blacks in many parts of the North as in the South. While discrimination against blacks was open for all to see in the South, it was more or less hidden in the North.

It is sad that so many blacks live in poverty, but they have only themselves to blame, not whites. Instead of emphasizing education and good behavior for their kids, many tend to spend their energy on blaming everyone but themselves for their predicament. And they get plenty of help there from Jackson and Sharpton. That's why they can't break the cycle of poverty.

My friend Cois says, ‘Hate and bad attitudes are passed on from one generation to the next. You have seen it and so have I. Living situations, especially in the inner city or segregated areas where there is no father involved and the mother has kids from 4 or 5 different fathers. The kids are on the street setting up their own way of life and it's almost never good.’

Cois adds, ‘Look at Sendai, Japan. No riots, no screaming and pushing to get water. no blaming someone else for their problems. Within a few years, it will be rebuilt and look better than before. Good examples are Hiroshima and Nagasaki and even Tokyo where most of it burned down during WWII.’

I would suggest that we all take a good look at the Vietnamese in this country. They came here unable to speak English and without a pot to pee in. Vietnamese kids quickly learned to speak English and their parents taught them the value of an education. Many have excelled in our public schools and in our colleges and universities. Even those without an education have worked their asses off at all hours of the day and night - all members of the family contributing - to succeed in various businesses.

And what have blacks learned from the Vietnamese? Nothing! Instead they accuse Vietnamese and Korean owned businesses in black neighborhoods of exploiting the ‘brothers and sisters’ by overcharging them for inferior merchandize, the same accusations they have made for years against Jewish owned businesses in their neighborhoods.

If blacks would only follow the example of the Vietnamese, their lives in this country would get a whole lot better.