[Cz-L] Re: czernowitz-l digest: June 01, 2011

Thanks, Hardy, for my morning laugh. As a friend of mine used to say, "Zolst mir nur excusen."

You can repent on my behalf, too, though, because I have to confess, I also have prejudices. I fight them but they're there. We all are guilty to some degree of discrimination. Perhaps we had less of it in Czernowitz than they have in other parts of the world but that didn't stop the slaughter of about half the resident Jews.

Oscar Hammerstein wrote a beautiful lyric on the subject for the musical South Pacific:

"You've got to be taught to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be carefully taught"

The song created some controversy. In the U.S. South, at the time, when blacks still had to sit at the back of the bus, there were accusations that this was a Moscow inspired song.

But Hammerstein was only partially right. Discrimination is as natural among people as among animals who all have natural enemies. Years ago, on a beach on Long Island, my younger son, at the time aged four or five, perhaps, saw his first African; a chunky, very black boy of perhaps eight or nine.

The unfortunate youngster had a very low hairline and a general simian look. My son pointed to him and said, "Look, daddy, a Gorilla!" The black kid's expression was filled with pain and rage. Instinctively, I slapped my son and told him never to call a human being an animal (while I personally respect animals more than people anyway.)

I found a nearby grocery that had a black delivery boy who was filled with personality and joy. I got him to deliver groceries to us a few times. He kidded around with my two youngsters and they got to love him. They're touching sixty now and they became far more liberal than I am.

Discrimination, unfortunately, is often a natural, primitive reaction in humans and they have to be carefully taught to get over it.

Andy

--- On Wed, 6/1/11, Czernowitz Genealogy and History digest <czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu> wrote:

From: Czernowitz Genealogy and History digest <czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu>
Subject: czernowitz-l digest: June 01, 2011
To: "czernowitz-l digest recipients" <czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu>
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 10:42 PM

CZERNOWITZ-L Digest for Wednesday, June 01, 2011.

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Received on 2011-06-02 09:46:23