More bigotry being applauded by DUers

[carolinayellowdog]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1743619

33 votes so far for greatest! Wish we could vote for worst.
My sense of things is that the South historically has been the least anti-Semitic part of the country, at least in the large cities. Growing up in the Norfolk area I found the general sentiment to be quite pro-Jewish. The Moses Myers house is a source of great local pride. Rural areas anywhere are probably more xenophobic than cities, but still, this criticism seems off base.

What do you think?

CYD

[RoyGBiv]

1. My Thoughts ...

I'm going to be rather blunt here and risk whatever venom comes my way.

I think most stories like this are bullshit, at least to the extent of being representative of people's object experiences, as opposed to the subjective experiences they have, which include over-sensitivity based on their own pre-conceived notions, the simple "fish out of water" syndrome that leads to all the feelings associated with being a minority in one's immediate surroundings, and the effects of dealing with alien cultures. I hear and/or read countless stories about people from this or that region visiting this or that other region and having horribile experiences, then drawing the false conclusion the reason for this is that the people in that other region just suck. Closer to the truth is simply that the people in that region are simply different, and what the individual who had the bad experiencing is dealing with is his or her own inability to adapt to that culture.

If I were to go to New York or San Francisco or wherever looking for anti-Southern feeling and/or bias, I would find it. In fact I did, during both visits. I did not, however, paint he entire city or region with a broad brush, and those incidents did not become fixated in my mind as the whole of that experience. Some people form their judgments of other cultures differently, and I think judgments of Southern culture are developed within a unique context that begins and ends with finding and emphasizing those elements which are negative.

As for the observation you made, I would not that the Confederacy had Judah P. Benjamin, who to this day is revered by self-proclaim unreconstructed rebels. He experienced prejudice of a sort, but not the kind he had experienced as a citizen of the United States. That makes neither region/nation good or bad. It simply is. Prejudice, as always, is everywhere. You will find it if you look.

[carolinayellowdog]

2. Finding and emphasizing negative elements

Hey Roy,

Glad you commented. Since there were no specifics cited, I'm inclined to agree that the perceptions were at least as biased as the behavior observed. OTOH I would say that ability or inability to adapt to various cultures is to some extent a measure of how welcoming said cultures are. Mexicans are a lot more patient with halting Spanish than Quebecois are with halting French, for example.

But generally the South is as welcoming a place as any I've seen.

CYD

[Clark2008]

3. Thankfully, it finally got locked as flame bait.

My husband is a northern Jew and we live in Tennessee. He's never had any problems this chick described. I think it's more her attitude than where she's from or what religion she practices.

[nealmhughes]

4. I am a gentile scholar of Reform Judaism in the New South, and far from

being antisemitic, the South has by and large been the most tolerant part of the country (as a large section) to openly be a practicing Jew. Philanthropy and social involvement were developed in the New South, largely by Reform Jews.

The KKK's most recent iteration, which described itself as antisemitic and antiforeign was a novelty -- as recently as the First World War, the Bham Temple Beth Emanuel was the host for a benefit for the relief of Galician Jews trapped between the armies of the two Kaisers and the Czar.
Christians filled most of the seats. When the Presbyterian Church in Southside split, Morris Newfield, the rabbi at Emanuel gave the temple over for Sunday services for the Independent Presbyterian Church until they raised enough money for a new church.

Bham boosters at the turn of the century printed Jewish sermon abstracts in the religion section alongside Xian sermons. Newfield's series on the history of religion in the world drew crowds of Xians and Jews on Saturday nights for weeks.

The first overt antisemitism was during the reign of the KKK in Bham in the early 20s when a candidate for school principal was selected and then deselected on the pressure of the KKK, all while Samuel Ullman was the first and longest serving board president of the Bham School Board!

The equation of Jews with "n-lovin' Yankee outside agitators" was drummed up after the Klan was defeated thru men such as Hugo Black after his discovery that it wasn't all play acting out of Birth of a Nation meets the Masons -- and the Civil Rights struggle began post-WWII, based on Jewish dialogue with civil rights workers.

I don't think most Xian southerners find Jews offensive as people or a religous group at all...after all, we do love department stores and pastrami and bagels the same as everyone else, don't we? :-)

Judah P. Benjamin, Lillian Hellman, David Y. Levi, Louis Brandeis, Randy Newman, Kinky Friedman, and Morris Dees come to mind immediately, along with my uncle Karl Kohen!