Russians and Obama--The Audacity of Racism

Several weeks ago, I had a conversation with a dear Russian Jewish friend, a charming businesswoman, who told me that she happened to discuss Barack Obama during a business conference with a man from Kenya, who told her how proud Kenyans are that a man whose father was from Kenya has a good chance to become President of the United States. I'm not sure how my friend responded to the man from Kenya, but in relating the ancdote to me some days later, she said, "Look, Walter, I didn't emigrate from Russia to America to have a Kenyan as president of the United States."

Let me acknowledge that, to my shame, I didn't respond to my friend's comment, because she happens to be one of my favorite people and I didn't want to damage our relationship at that moment by self-righteously upbraiding her for racism. But of course, I ought to have said something in response, not hectoring or patronizing, but with kindess and affection, to address a comment that was clearly racist, even if she is a delightful person, who I am sure, would never consciously do a mean thing to any person of any color. But after all, why not someone with Kenyan roots as President of the United States as opposed to someone with English or German roots? Because a Kenyan or a half-Kenyan (as in Obama's case) is someone with dark skin.

It s not like my friend's comment was the only remark I have heard from Russian Jews about Obama over the past few months that betrayed racist sentiments. Sometimes , it has been even more overt. When I covered the Democratic primary in a polling station in Brighton Beach on Super Tuesday last February, the Russian Jewish voters I spoke with were voting en masse for Hillary Clinton, and several of them were quite open as to why they were doing so. "Write this down," one middle aged woman told me, "We are all voting for Hillary because she's not black." Another woman told me that Russians fear that if Obama wins, all of America will become like New York under David Dinkins; the blacks will get all arrogant and full of themselves and the police won't do anything about black-on-white crime, such as crime by black teenagers in Coney Island preying on elderly Russians living in the area.

Fear of crime is understandable; crime by blacks against Russian-speakers in Coney Island is a real problem, but the way to deal with it is to work with the police and with the black community leadership in Coney Island that is also committed to fighting crime and is trying to improve conditions in the area for all residents. To his credit, Alec Brook-Krasny, the Russian-speaking State Assemblyman for Brighton Beach and Coney Island, has taken that approach and built strong relationships with black leaders in Coney Island; in the process modelling for his Russian-speaking constituents what a non-racist community outreach approach looks like. But Brook-Krasny and other Russian Jewish community leaders should also speak out at community forums about the wrongness of racism, which runs counter to the ethical values of Judaism and to everything that the Jewish experience in America has been about. Do even one in one hundred Russian Jews know that in the 1960's Jews, in large numbers, left their schools and jobs in the North and went to Alabama and Mississippi; marching and sitting in at lunch counters to end segregation and to win black people the right to vote? Many Jews were beaten by the racist Southern police, and a few, including New Yorkers Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner, were murdered by a posse of Ku Klux Klansmen, along with a black colleague, James Chaney. Russian Jews need to learn more about that history and ponder its meaning.

In the last few months, I have heard repeatedly from Russian Jewish friends, including in discussions on this forum, about how terrible Rev. Wright is and how the fact that he was Obama's pastor is good enough reason to oppose Obama. Yes, Rev. Wright is angry at white America, and in truth, he has every right to be angry. This country kept black people in slavery for 250 years and as second class citizens--really fourth class citizens--for another 100 years after that. So we have a total of 350 years plus of servitude, severe dsicrimination and exploitation, nearly equal to the 400 years the Jews were slaves in Egypt. All I can say to that is that if I was a heir to that tradition, if I were a black American, I wouldn't be shouting, "God Bless America"--I might say, as Rev. Wright did in a moment of righteous anger, "God Damn America" for treating my people with such terrible, implacable cruelty; for perpetrating on African-Americans a horrific experience that can be compared to the Holocaust. A question to my Russian-Jewish friends who remember the bitter experience of living as Jews in the Soviet Union; "Did you shout 'Slava CCCP' when you gathered with friends for honest discussions over tea in the kitchen? Did you feel love in your hearts for Russians and Ukrainians for calling you 'zhid' on the tramvei, or to the wonderful Soviet government for preventing you from attending MGU or some other top university or institute simply because you were Jewish despite the fact that you had the best grades in the class? If not, why do you expect that Rev. Wright or any other black person of his generation who lived through the bad old (and not-so-old) days, to shout 'God Bless America'?

And yet, despite that terrible history, here we have Obama, a member of a new generation of middle-class blacks who have been able to move past the bitterness of the black experience in America, leading a black-white coalition dedicated to opening a new and more hopeful page in American history. The Obama phenonomon and the readiness of millions of white people, especially young people, to support him, is one of the most inspiring moments in recent American history, an important sign that this country is finally starting to move past the horrors of its past and finally, finally beginning to live up to the immortal words of our founding document, the Declaration of Independence that "All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Do you hear that, my dear Russian-speaking friends; my wonderful friends with whom I personally have shared so much life experience? The Declaration of Independence says that ALL men are created equal," including men whose skin color is darker than yours and mine. Since 1776, we've stretched the definition of those who are created equal so that it doesn't just include 'all men', but 'all human beings'. All human beings, male and female, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, rich, poor, gay and straight, all of us are created equal and deserve to be treated and related to as such. We are all brothers and sisters with the same measure of human dignity and human worth. That is what America was supposed to be about from the beginning, and now 232 years too late, but slowly and haltingly with baby steps, American is finally learning to live up to her promise. It is that bedrock belief in human equality and the right of all people to experience the fruits of liberty and justice that ultimately redeems America, that ultimately makes America a good and decent place.

For Russian Jews to experience decades of oppression in the USSR, to struggle to win their freedom and to come to live in a land of liberty, only to tell a reporter, "Write this down, I'm voting for Hillary because she's not black", is a betrayal of the Soviet Jewish fight for freedom. It is a betrayal of the Jewish fight for freedom from the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus. It is a betrayal of basic Jewish values, American values and human values. It makes us no better than the drunken bigot on the tramvei in Moscow or Minsk who sneered, "zhid" at us. If we want freedom and justice for ourselves, we should also want it for all Americans, including our black neighbors in Coney Island.

Sadly, racism is a common human emotion; it can be found among all nations throughout the world. People tend to fear and distrust those with different skin color, different religions, different ethnicities. But racism is an emotion that degrades and banalizes the worth of the person who expresses it, who feels it. To the extent that racism exists in the Russian Jewish community--and I believe any honest person will acknowledge that it exists at an unacceptable level--then we must confront it and fight it. Everything that is wonderful about the Russian-Jewish mindset and ethos--all of the attributes of spontaneity and kindness that I have come to love over the years, is devalued and made worthless by the comment, "I didn't come here to have a Kenyan as president of the United States." Well, sorry, my dear friend, but that is exactly what makes America great, that finally we Americans may be fortunate enough to get a person whose father was a Kenyan and mother was white as President of the United States. To paraphrase the Jewish liturgy, "Thank God that we have survived everything we have been through and lived to see this day."

Continued...