老美看美國：猶太人後裔現身說法再談種族歧視

老美看美國：：種族主義的數學之「與村民探討篇」

文/ 他爹 翻譯 / 他娘

我的第一篇文章引起這麼熱烈的討論，實在令我驚訝。讓我有了就同樣的話題再寫一篇的衝動。許多人問我數據引用的出處，或者到哪裡找這些信息。以下是相關鏈接：

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/64

許多評論直接就在繼續我們這個社會裡種族分子的傾向，即使統計數字已經顯示了明顯的不公。對此我並不驚訝。

記得我小時候，大概七八歲吧。母親提醒我不要談論或提自己父親的猶太人血統。雖然我從小當基督徒養育的，我父親的家族祖先是德國猶太人。事實上，我父親自己的朋友甚至都不知道他的家族是猶太人。

很多年後，我才懂得我母親為啥讓我們隱瞞這部分家史。因為當時社會不喜歡猶太人。即使我自己不是猶太人（猶太人只有通過母親傳承），我仍然很好奇。長大一些后，我才看到和聽到猶太人作為整體是如何被當時的社會對待和看待的。

記得我十五，六歲的時候，我和父親及父親的朋友一起去打獵。一天晚上，在我們的帳篷里，所有的大人們都在談論他們在第二次世界大戰和德國集中營時期的經歷。令人驚詫地是，他們中大部分人居然對納粹殺害猶太人的事情並沒有介意。他們萬萬沒有想到，他們自己身邊的好朋友，同事，我的父親，就是一個猶太人。對他們來講，他就是ROY。如果他繼續保留他原來的姓氏「Schienermann」,他們可能能猜到他是猶太人。但是，我的家族近100年前就放棄了那個家族姓氏以便更 「美國化」。

如果他們知道了我父親的身份，他們對我父親的看法會不一樣嗎？絕對會。

這裡的問題是我父親的朋友們只了解那個時代教給他們的東西。他們沒有一個人認識猶太人也從來不認識猶太人。他們都是在鄉下小鎮上或者是農村裡或俄勒岡州的農場長大的。但是，他們的種族歧視（如果你也和我一樣認為猶太人是一個族裔而不是一個宗教的話）是很明顯的。他們了解猶太人是多麼多麼壞，以及他們都幹些什麼壞事的故事，但是，他們從來沒親眼見過。他們所知道的都是聽來的---從哪些和他們一樣的人那裡聽來的，而那些人也沒有親眼見過任何這些所謂的壞事。

我父親與他們一起打獵有近20年直到他們一個個都老的打不動獵了。他們現在都已不在人世，我的父親，也已離去。他們的故事屬於他們的歷史和他們那個時代。

但是，我父親的每個朋友到了墳墓都還是想著我的父親是一個多麼了不起的人，一個誠實的人，一個以家庭為重的人，一個努力工作的人。他有著那些優點，但是，他還是一個猶太人，但是他們都不知道這一點。

種族歧視和不容忍以許多形式在許多不同類型的人中間存在。當黑人遭受我們的文化中已經制度化的種族歧視時，亞裔也開始受到攻擊。過去一年乃至最近就有兩個亞裔美軍士兵因為不堪忍受同事的嘲笑奚落以及騷擾而自殺。

從1996到2006十年間，有所美國大學--康奈爾大學就有21件學生自殺案。 (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/2009-10/19/content_11005682.htm ) 這21個自殺的學生中，13個是亞裔！亞裔學生只有全校學生總數的百分之十四，但是自殺率卻是百分之四十！為什麼？我不認為亞裔比其他族裔更頻繁自殺。他們自殺是因為受到同事的壓力。

就像黑人與白人相比，犯同樣的罪，入獄比率是白人的10倍一樣，是社會輿論和看法認為黑人人均比白人犯罪率更高。也許是。但是，事實就是事實----犯同樣的罪，黑人被扔進監獄的比率與白人入獄的比率是10比1。這就是不公平。

你們每一個看來我的上一篇文章並發表評論的朋友，我強烈建議你們考慮一下問題，並自己做點研究，挑戰你在以下方面的看法：

1.      享受社會福利的是黑人多還是白人更多？

2.      享用食物券的黑人多還是白人多？

3.      如果你擁有一家公司，收到一份簡歷，上面的姓氏是 「Lateka」, 你會打電話叫那個人來面試嗎？

4.      犯有同樣罪，獲死刑的是黑人多，還是白人多？

我知道答案。但是，我的看法是：只有親自尋找，而非道聽途說，你才能了解事實真相。道聽途說只會延續一個沒有事實根據的故事。

正如我前段時間寫的文章—那些人來抓其他人的時候，不要無動於衷，不施援手，因為不知道哪一天，你會發現自己已經成為孤家寡人，孤立無援。

(原文)                          THE MATHEMATICS OF RACISM

PART II

I am  surprised by many of the comments posted regarding the first article – which has inspired me to write PART II. Many of you asked for the notations or where to find the info, see link:

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/64

What does not surprise me is that many of the comments play directly into continuing the racist tendencies of our society even though statistics show a distinct unfairness.

I recall as a young boy, perhaps when I was 7 or 8 years old – being reminded by my mother not to talk about or mention my own fathers Jewish heritage. Although I was raised as a Christian – my fathers side of the family had a Jewish ancestry from Germany. In fact, none of my own fathers friends even knew of his families 「Jewishness」.

It took me some years to understand why my mother wanted me to 「hide」 this part of our family. Society didn』t like Jews. Even though I wasn』t Jewish ( you can only be Jewish through your maternal parentage ) I was still curious. As I grew older I could see and hear how Jews were treated and thought of by society as a whole.

I remember a time when I was about 15 or 16 years old and I was on a hunting trip with my father and his friends. One evening in our camp all the older men were talking about their experience during World War II and the concentration camps in Germany. Surprisingly, most of the men their weren』t bothered by the Nazi』s efforts to kill all the Jews. They had no idea that their good friend and co-worker, my father, was a Jew. To them he was Roy Snyder. They may have guessed he was Jewish if he still carried the old family name – Schniedermann. But, our family had disposed of that name decades before to become 「Americanized」. 

Would their view of my father been different if they had known? Absolutely.

The point here is that my fathers friends only knew what society had taught them. None of them knew a Jew or had ever known a Jew. They had all grown up in rural towns and farm communities or on farms in the state of Oregon. But, their racism ( if you consider Jews a race rather than a religion as I do ) was obvious. They knew all the 「stories」 about how bad Jews were and what they do – but, they had never seen it for themselves. All they knew is what they had been told – which came from people who like them had probably been told the same thing but also had never seen any of these 「bad」 things for themselves.

For over 20 years my father and his friends gathered every fall for their annual hunting trip until one by one they all became too old to go hunting any longer. They are all gone now, my father too, long dead and their own stories belong to history and the ages.

But, each of my fathers friends went to their graves thinking my father was a wonderful man, an honest man, a family man, a hard worker. And he was all of those things. But, he was also a Jew and they never knew that.

Racism and intolerance come in many forms directed at many types of people. While blacks suffer from a systemic racism in our culture Asians are now coming under attack. In the past year and just recently 2 U.S. military young men both Asians committed suicide because of the taunting and harassment they suffered at the hands of their peers.

At one U.S. university--Cornell University (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/2009-10/19/content_11005682.htm ) in the years from 1996 to 2006 there were 21 suicides by students. Of those 21 students who killed themselves 13 were Asian! While Asians were only 14% of the students at the school they represented 62% of the suicides ! Why? I don』t think Asians commit suicide any more often than any other group. They committed suicide because of pressure from their peers.

Just like black men are 10 times more likely to be put in prison than a white man for the same crime it is the society opinion and view that blacks commit more crimes than whites per capita. Perhaps they do. But, the fact is still a fact – for the same exact crime a black man will be put in prison by a ration of 10:1 as compared to a white man. That』s not fair.

To each of you who read the article and commented I urge you to consider the following and do your own research to challenge what your own views are on the following:

1.      Are there more white people or black people on welfare?

2.      Are there more white people or black people receiving food stamps

3.      If you owned a company and were reviewing a resume and the name on it was 「Lateka」 would you call that person in for an interview?

4.      What percentage of black men are executed for crimes as compared to white men for the same exact crime?

I know the answers. But, my view is that you only learn something when you find it for yourself rather than being told. Being told something more often than not only perpetuates a story that often times has no basis in fact.

As I wrote in an earlier article – don』t let them come for all the others and not stand up for them, someday you may find yourself standing all alone.

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