'Critical Race Theory' - What does it mean for Jews?

Since I moved to the “Deep South” my cultural education gets a rough shock almost daily. From governors trying to undo a legal election to who is eligible to vote and where and when you can vote to the newest twist on an old subject to be taught in the coming school year called “Critical Race Theory.”

Now, I haven’t seen the textbook or any discussion guides. All I have learned so far is that it deals with attitudes on race and will modify the treatment of African Americans in our history so that periods like Reconstruction will not be taught so accurately. “Reconstruction” and the period that followed was almost as harsh on African Americans as was slavery itself.

This was the period of the Tulsa Massacre and the Ku Klux Clan. Schools were still segregated and college education at white universities pretty much impossible for people of color.

Today we are living in a time when Republicans across the South (Yep. “Party of Lincoln”) are passing laws to make it more difficult to vote with a heavy emphasis on preventing this right to people of color and other low-income minorities.

Matter of fact, like Will Rogers “all I know is what I read in the papers”; I’ll just wait for details. So, you will ask: Jim – what does this have to do with Jews?

This nation has a long history of segregation, antisemitism, racism and exclusion. The Jewish Community has fought all of this. We fought it on behalf of Jews, weighed in on the battle for Blacks and always kept our attention on what came next. Therefore again I will reach into my own family and my Grandma Deitch who would ask on any issue: “Is that good for the Jews or bad for the Jews?”

The Republican party has stated in their own party gatherings and in the press, that the only way they can win in the future is by limiting access to the polls. It’s either that or the “Big Steal”: the greatest piece of hogwash since the Flat Earth theory.

The Jewish Community at one time was almost solidly Democratic. It is not anymore. Most of our grievances with the Republican party ended with the end of the Truman era. We embraced Eisenhower and Reagan and almost even Nixon. Our largest rallying cry in recent decades in both domestic and International disputes has been in support of Israel.

Now there are other factors in play. Many of which would have been unthinkable just a few generations ago.

Manipulation of voting rights laws have always been with us. The South has always been the epicenter of voter exclusion and manipulation. It exists in Florida. It exists here in Louisiana. Trump-worshiping politicians sprinkled throughout our elected officials have been practicing their mantra of White Dominance and ignoring any thoughts of passing laws to help people vote.

“Critical Race Theory” can be used to further isolate communities of color — and other minority groups trying to use the ballot box as their weapon of choice against the centuries of discrimination and exclusion in education, voting rights and the economy.

If this is the route that the Republican Party has chosen for its future, the Jews — specifically forward thinking Republican Jews, have a job cutout for them on party turf. Are they the party of Lincoln? Or Trump and his predecessors?

The second problem is a bit more difficult if you live here in the “Deep South”. How do you reconcile a culture that does not practice what is “normal” for the rest of us in communal life. Here, 70 percent of African American families are “single households.”

It is a simple cultural attitude that marriage is not part of communal life. In Jewish life and the Jewish Community, of course, marriage is the normal transition in our lives that leads to the challenges and delights of parenthood, family life and the next chapter. We live a combination of community, family and usually lifetime domestic life.

If indeed, the mission of Jews on a broad basis is to heal the world, we have to look at it on both a broad and personal basis. We are, broadly speaking, a Judeo/Christian nation, cobbled together with the ethos of togetherness in our normal lives with acceptance and indeed an embracing of other cultures into the mix and a congenial outcome.

Not so where Black Lives Matter leads to riots and policing is racially charged. Jews have led the fight for equality for all almost all of our history. Recent events show us the fight has just begun. And again, we will have to lead the fight. So, Grandma Deitch, Good for the Jews? Time will tell.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Heritage Florida Jewish News.