Race Relations - Let's Dialogue

race relations

“The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams.” 

Maya Angelou 

Growing up in NY - race was always the unspoken but always an underlying powerful issue.  It was always the “elephant in the room.” There were always the haves and the have-nots.  And those breakdowns were usually along racial lines.  

My family and friends were middle class - no major tensions - everyone pretty much had the same.  This fostered a certain sense of security and comfort in a middle-class lifestyle.

But, I do remember one of our housekeepers, Sarah.  She was leaving our home and taking the bus to get to her home in Bedford/Stuyvesant - a rough neighborhood.  She was a petite woman with a nice smile.   She got off the bus and was greeted by an angry group of white teenagers - I presumed they knew it was payday.  She was beaten so badly that she died.  My parents immediately went to her family’s home and took care of funeral expenses and made sure the children got fed and to school over the coming weeks.  That was the childhood I remembered - I never felt anything but admiration for Sarah - working hard so she could buy a set of World Books for her children.  We took care of our neighbors and our friends and certainly a woman who provided us with kindness and care.

Notwithstanding all of the myriad issues associated with the Trayvon Martin case, I want to focus on the claim by Juror B37 as well as by the defense attorneys and countless other pundits that race was not the issue. We are delusional if we really believe race was not the basis for the whole sad series of events. I think we should be ashamed of ourselves as a country if we continue to perpetuate the notion that we live in a post-racial, race-neutral or colorblind society.  We just need to look at the glaring disparities in health, education, incarceration and unemployment rates between the black and white populations.

"Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law.  And when the law loses, freedom languishes."  Robert Kennedy

Today, while reading and watching the news, Sarah crept back into my mind.  As I was watched and listened to the President this week, memories of racism made my heart ache. His words were not scripted - he spoke from his heart - “You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son,” he said. “Another way of saying that, is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”

That was so powerful.  And for me, my experience with Sarah some 65 years ago was as clear today as it was then.

After Jerry and I started our family, we moved from New York to Indianapolis - a very conservative city.  Schools were all segregated, neighborhoods were segregated.  I learned about redlining.  

Redlining was used to keep minorities in one neighborhood and keep everyone else in different neighborhoods. Realtors would show places based on race.  Banks were in the habit of charging higher interest rates in minority neighborhoods.  All this was part of redlining.  Just a way to keep those further down the economic scale from ever rising. Keep their property values low. Keep their cost of living high.

At the same time I was eager to learn how the city worked, and, as a Jewish woman, to learn what the community was all about and what it had to offer.  To give you an idea of discrimination,  we lived in a private home neighborhood where I joined the Association.  I signed up for bowling and I was curtly told, “There are enough Jews on the team.” I immediately started a house search.  

At the same time, I met some wonderful young women very progressive in their thinking and workings.  I met my friend Diane Simon on the evening that Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot.  On April 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy came to Indianapolis and on the steps of a local church, spoke to the crowd and broke the news.  Diane was standing right next to me - grabbed my hand.  Diane was in graduate school at the time and then went on to work for Senator Birch Bayh - a beautiful woman and Todd had the biggest crush on her - especially her perfume.   Our interests and concerns never waivered.  We have stayed close for these 45 years.

We held tight to those feelings from the church and when we were confronted with the Rev. Louis Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism, we were there for each other and for many friends in both the black and Jewish communities.

Rev. Farrakhan was scheduled to appear at The Black Expo, a major organization focused on “being an effective voice and vehicle for the social and economic advancement of African-Americans.” The chairs of the event were black and Jewish leaders of Indianapolis.  Diane Simon was one of those leaders.

There was Farrakhan - sitting and spewing all that hate in Indianapolis. Diane and I, along with the rabbis and community leaders sat down to decide our strategy.  Do we remain in that leadership position?  Do we set aside the good that could be accomplished for young black men? There are always riotous opportunities - angry crowds against this hatred - but we on the other hand, used our political and social work backgrounds and came up with a more cerebral and non-violent approach.  We entered into conversations with Rev. Farrakhan, and we found our strategy.  We agreed to ‘dialogue’ with women of similar minds.  We decided on 100 women, 50 black and 50 Jewish.  And that was the start of “Dialogue Today”  - now celebrating its 30th anniversary.   In 1984 Theresa Guise, Constituent Relations Director for Congressman Andy Jacobs,  Diane Simon, and I formed a coalition between African-American and Jewish women in Indianapolis.  When the organization incorporated in 1987, it stated as its purpose: 

 “Dialogue Today is dedicated to the reaffirmation of the commitment of Black women and Jewish women to their common concerns for the dignity and human rights of all people.”

Farrakhan was an attack on that very necessary coalition, so he was not just attacking the Jews, he was also weakening the Afro-Americans in their pursuit of civil and political rights.  Men have difficulty talking about feelings, so we pursued a group of Black/Jewish women to start talking, sharing and attacking those myths and stereotypes of each other.  We were asked to facilitate a men’s Dialogue Today group, but identifying the joint leadership eluded the three of us.

As we discussed hate groups, myths and stereotypes about their two groups, problems in Africa and the Middle East, I remember preparing a Position Statement on the South African anti-Apartheid movement.  Surprisingly, several of the black women were hesitant to sign on to the statement - fear of possible retaliation.  And there was much discussion on the Palestinian situation.  Who was the oppressor and who was the oppressed?  We were wise enough to agree to disagree.

In looking ahead, these subjects are just as relevant today.  There is always a need to “dialogue.”  It is our hope that such dialogue groups will continue to grow and flourish. Much has been gained, but we are far from living a life of equal opportunities, education and financial success.

Diane spoke these words at Dialogue Today’s Opening Luncheon in 1984.

"We’re here today with expectations and apprehensions, questions and comments.  We’re here to talk until we hear each other and until we understand each other.  We must ask ourselves to be honest with ourselves and with one another; to be open to the truth and to bind together to improve the chances for a better future.  When women band together, it is a powerful phenomenon." 

[This]  In the aftermath of recent events, we need exactly this kind of national dialogue on race relations.  Let’s be part of this dialogue in communities around the country.