Reading for March 14th, 2007

The reading for today's class was entitled "How Jews became white folks: and what that says about race in America" written by Karen Brodkin. The chapter outlines some of the concepts of why Jews were not considered white during the pre- World War II days and how they likened themselves to African-Americans. She describes how her parents struggled when they came to America to find somewhere they belonged and could live and how it was for her own struggles. It depicts some of the worst times in American history in regards to racism, ethnic superiority and anti-antisemitism.
One of the key factors in this reading was World War II and its effects on the lives of Jews and "lower class" minorities. Things such as the GI bill prohibited the lower class people such as African Americans and Jews from collecting the money owed to them, including women. This was the reality of those times but as the author describes, it becomes better around the 1960's. Upstart suburbia's like Leavittown were no longer allowed to discriminate against blacks or Jews and equality was on the rise.
One thing i am unclear about is the reasons for why a Jewish person would not be considered white. Most Jewish people have white complexion but are not considered white because of religious premise. It makes very little sense to base skin color blindly on religion nearly 1900 years after the original conflict started.
I found this reading to be informative because I did not know the struggles of the Jewish person quite that far in depth. I knew of antisemitism but I didn't know it ran so deep into America's past.