So, one of the things that has been irking our family much is the general inability of white society to see how the conditions of immigration among different groups has affected groups quite differently in resulting in significant psychological, material, and economic realities for different people. One suggestion we've heard in a relatively short period of time both in person and in online discussions is the comparison of Jews and Blacks in American society--why can't Blacks make it? The Jews did. This post is going to address this diatribe against Black society, as well as the antisemitism involved with the stereotypes of Jews, and the racism on part of Jews who assert the same claim and justify their own hard work and success as a matter of hard work and merit by playing by the rules in striving for the so-called American Dream.
When thinking about immigration and the U.S., we must always consider the motives and conditions in which people were either brought to the continent. Not all people who emigrated into the U.S. entered in with excitement and big hopes for future success. Not all people who emigrated into the U.S. entered because they were fleeing serious oppression in their home countries. Some people were brought to the North American continent against their will and torn form their families, their religions, their cultures, their native tongue, and all they knew, most notably, African Americans whose ancestry goes back to slavery. Jewish immigration does not go back as far as the British and African American immigration that took place during the 17th Century.
The literature widely cites, outside of obviously the American Indian and the Spanish, the people who have the most generations under their belts are British and African Americans. Why? Because the British were fleeing the oppression of England meanwhile engaging in, and building the foundation of this nation (socially, legally, economically, etc.) on slavery (immigrating populations) while carrying out genocide and illegal land theft of the Native American Indian societies and populations. In short, current realities of the four groups just mentioned are quite different resulting in a clear racial and racist hierarchy, as well as significant differences in the overall social locations and economic, psychological, and physical well-beings of the groups. First, those of the first British descent are at the top of the hierarchy while those of African descent are at the bottom, both who represent 16+ generations of being in American society. Native American Indians are nearly extinct both physically and culturally. The remaining populations represent less than 5% of the total U.S. population and like Black Americans, live in areas where environmental racism are problematic serving to slowly dwindle the populations only further. That in combination with the various types of racism, Winona LaDuke notes how relocating Native American Indians and destroying the lands kills both culture and ethnicity, which often times is irreversible once the lands are destroyed, as those who wish to go back and reclaim their lands and their ways are unable to retrieve the foods and nutrients from those natural habitats that were once held sacred but are now poisoned or completely destroyed, as well as carry out traditions and ethnic ceremonies. Those from Spain were largely forced down into what is now Mexico with some remaining in the adjusting U.S. territory. Though, those from Mexico are largely at the bottom ranks of U.S. society experiencing wage slavery and those entering into professional fields find themselves to be marginalized.
So, what about the other groups, such as Asians and Jews, those model minorities? The Chinese experienced brutal slave conditions on the West Coast during the late 1800's and the Japanese lost their worlds to concentration camps here in the U.S. during WWII without any reparations. Jews experienced their fair share of hardships associated with antisemitism. Well first things first, the model minority idea is racist and a stereotype--not all people who are members of these groups are innately intelligent and are destined to succeed in everything they do. Many members of these groups live in poverty and only the successes of the groups are seen. Then there's these ideas that these groups are fundamentally different than other groups because they have different morals and values that embrace education and pushing their children to succeed, among other theories, including those that suggest members of these groups are greedy penny pinchers and throw nothing away. Then there is a tendency to contrast these groups with others who are less visible in higher education and professional fields, such as, Blacks and Latinos.
Perhaps there are more realistic reasons for why Asians and Jews have been able to enter the higher social ranks in U.S. society in a relatively short period of time in comparison to the Black populations and several generation members of the Latino populations--more can be read on this in The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism and How Jews Became White Folks: What That Says About Race in America. Maybe it's something called white supremacy, the social structures and foundation of which this nation rests upon. In his book Systemic Racism: Theories of Oppression Joe Feagin lays out a racial hierarchy that operates by color in the U.S. that is firmly in place where through systemic racism, society is systematically racially polarized in a way that inevitably keeps whites at the top and Blacks at the bottom, regardless of the the amount of immigration of other groups that takes place, thereby, nestling all the groups in between somewhere in the middle of this social hierarchy with those who have the lightest skin in general up higher than those with darker skin. The readings just noted prior theoretically and empirically support this theory.
Now this brings us to the issues that has been bothering us most recently, the comparison of Blacks and Jews in the U.S. and the underlying racists assertions that Blacks are at the bottom because they are lazy, devalue education, and don't work hard enough while in a very short period of time, with studious hard work and an innate devotion to education, Jews have been able to rise in social and economic rank above other groups (as a group). We disagree. For thousands of years Jews have been devoted to hard work and education but were perpetually marginalized from societies and denied citizenship. What allowed this change to take place in recent history in the U.S. for Jews as a group? Coupled with resistance and battling social oppression in the U.S., the racial hierarchy allowed this group to move up faster in comparison to groups of darker skin colors. Hard work? Anybody whose familiar with agricultural work, house work, industrial work with dangerous machinery, etc., (work that pays little and limits upward mobility and social capital) would know that the history of labor among Black Americans in this nation as a group was nothing short of easy and lazy. Why not the education? Due to the laws of slavery and later the apartheid Jim Crow segregation, Black society were prevented from integrating into mainstream society and were limited to living in the environmentally worst geographical areas, from attending schools that were equivalent in quality in many respects, etc., to white people. While Jews experienced various discrimination, they weren't blocked to to the same degree that Blacks were. In addition, unlike Blacks in the U.S., Jews could "pass" as white and even more easily than the other groups of color that lie in the middle of the racial hierarchy. And to this very day with the legacy of racism and discrimination that is targeted against people with African Ancestry in this nation that continues on, Blacks remain at the bottom as a group while people with lighter skin tones sit at the top as a group.
And to close with the main point we are trying to make, the Neil Diamond video below is a good demonstration of the Jewish sentiment and visions they had when emigrating into the U.S. This is not denying the very real discrimination, antisemitism, and other hardships they faced as a group such as working through Ellis Island, upon admission and arrival into the U.S., and thereafter, but rather contrasting the experience and visions of Jews entering the U.S. and striving for their dreams in comparison to Africans being stolen from their homes and forced into slavery where their later generations would be systemically marginalized and denied full entrance and participation into white American society that result in cultural capital and upward mobility that serves to empower and improve the conditions of their later generations. The song below captures the sentiments and viewpoint of many Jews in terms of Jewish immigration into the U.S.:
May our grandbabies embrace all of their heritages and ancestries, while being critical of the role racism has played in affecting the differences in social integration and mobility (or lack of), as well as existence (or lack of), and their own positions and locations in America.
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