Since my college days, I must admit (regrettably), that I have let my readings on Black culture go by the wayside. Besides, I have more pressing concerns; like working on becoming a Jew. So while in Borders I was just checking out the "African-American" book section, totally not expecting to purchase an item from those shelfs. I don't remember what prompted me to pick up a book with such an incriminating title to begin with, but when I flipped the book over and read:
Maurice Berger grew up hypersensitized to race in the charged environment of New York City in the sixties. His father was a Jewish liberal who worshipped Martin Luther King, Jr., his mother a dark-skinned Sephardic Jew who hated black people. Berger himself was one of the few white kids in his Lower East Side housing project...I saw the price; $13.00. I decided I needed to go home with it.
I account the impulse purchase to just plain curiousity to see what this "mixed" Jewish man had to say about race relations. I totally did not expect such a profound message to be delivered in the guise of a plain-covered book just a bit over 200 pp long. Nor did I expect to laugh out loud, be appalled, find insight, and
finally see in black and white a more defined vision of modern, 21st century American racism.
Despite the strong-toned title,
White Lies does little finger pointing at the White race and instead focuses on the faulty thinking that many WASPs (and sometimes non-WASPs) hold about Black people. The method is subtle; reassuring to me as a Black reader (that a non-Black, albeit White Jew) that these problems can be isolated by an "other"; potentially disturbing to the White reader who thought that everything is just fine because you just
adore Oprah Winfrey...
Key points in the book are put into perspective by Mr. Berger's own life experiences; and he chooses to distribute them throughout the book. However much of the content displays essays, quotes, studies and stories from others as well. Being that Mr. Berger's academic background is in art [as oppossed to Black/African cultural studies], so the text is not bogged down with filler, academia-flavored jargon. Although he recounts of various anti-semitic incidents he himself experienced; he does not really imply that just because someone has experienced anti-semitism, he understands the racism that Black people experience. He seems to be illuminating the fact that
despite his keen awareness of anti-semitism, he too fell into the trappings of "White Advantage" (as opposed to "White Supremist") thinking. At first it seems striking that it is his Ashkenazi, light brown-haired, blue-eyed father who acknowledges the injustices suffered by Black people and not his Sephardic, dark-skinned mother - who lauded the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and peppered her speech with sneering references to
schwartzes. Despite the portrayals of Mrs. Berger being utterly repulsed by Black people, I personally could not see her as a villian. She herself was discriminated against in Yiddish theatre (where she worked as an actress before marriage) as well as life in general solely because of her looks. She is reminicent of the grandmother of a family friend of mine; this woman was half Black, half White, but married a White man. One of her sons, who for all intensive purposes looked white, married a Black woman. The family friend is a result of that union; and he and his brother are the only grandchildren that look Black by appearance. He remembers going over to his granparents' home and while his White grandfather was perfectly loving and cordial to them, their grandmother used to call them "dirty nappy-headed niggers" when they would misbehave and make them eat on the porch if their other "White" cousins were also visiting. These women are not
villians but
victims of a system that has indoctrinated them to feel ashamed of their "tainted blood"; and project that shame and hate onto others who are perpetuating that flawed status by just existing.
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So what makes this book any different from the dozen others I have on similar subject matter? Probably because the context of the racism presented is very common; almost sublime - but very obviously wrong. An excellent example is where he recounts how on the television program
Nightline in 1996, there was a segment done on "Race in America". In one situation they took a room of middle-class White people and asked them to place themselves in the following scenario:
The government, and not your family/genes determines what race an individual is. One day, a government agent contacts you and says that they made a mistake; you were really suppossed to be a Black person. However the government is willing to compensate you, if necessary, after making "the switch" and to adjust to your new life. How much would you want to be compensated?Needless to say, the responses were either not straight, refusal ("I just wouldn't do it") or outlandish (one man said he would need 50 million dollars). Such a suggestion made it clear that these "open-minded" White people saw being Black as a disadvantage; and a big one at that. I think that some of them would have rather amputated a limb.
Another good snippet was the one given by Shirley Verrett, a talented Black soprano singer was brought to Europe to perform an opera piece from the Baroque Era. Trained at
The Juillard School, she inherently knew to embellish her singing with notes not written in the score because they were implied for all vocal opera music of that time period. During the rehearsal, the conductor/director interrupted the piece and announced "Ms. Verrett is not singing the music as it is written". He then went and conferred with the other [White] European singers to ask them if they were familiar with the music ever being performed that way. They admitted they didn't know; so Ms. Verrett was allowed "her own interpretation" but the conductor has already shown that he held little fate in her expertise (he never conferred with her directly to ask why she was singing the piece that way) but ultimately saw it as "no big deal". Would this have
ever happened to Pavarotti?
After the performance, the critics raved. And one even pointed out that it was the first time in many years that that heard the
music sung in the correct manner.
And there are many more very poignant examples of this subtle yet damaging attitude among many White people to not give any undue attention to the problems present in the relationship between Black and White people. Adrian Piper was also highlighted in the book. She is an artist who although she can be taken for a white woman, considers herself Black by virtue of her mixed-race father. She has been in the situation far too many times where snide, off-color comments are said about Black people or other minorities. The guilty parties seem to take for granted that among White people, there is either agreement or tacit tolerance of a "harmless slur" shared among friends. That is until Denise passes "her card" to them. The card reads:
Dear friend, I am black. I am sure that you did not realize this when you made/laughed at/agreed with that racist remark. In the past, I have attempted to alert people to my racial identity in advance. Unfortunately, this invaiably causes them to react to me as pushy, manipulative, or socially inappropriate. Therefore my policy is to assume that white people do not make these remarks, even when they believe that there are no black people present, and to distribute this card when they do. I regret any discomfort my presence is causing you, just as I am sure you regret the discomfort your racism is causing me....(*
Sidenote: I am sure that many Jews can relate to this; although being that Jews are only a fraction of what Black people are population-wise, as well as the fact that Jews are not as assulted nearly as often in the media and print, the problem does not seem to plague Jews as much as it does Black people)
When Ms. Piper talked about her card at a symposium the reaction was [to me] surprising. Many of the White attendees either got quite defensive or criticized Ms. Piper directly; with support, if given, was vague. They called it "humiliating", "deceptive", "embarrassing" and that Ms. Piper "feels jaded" in some way. Their train of thought was almost tangible. They could see themselves getting one of these cards. They don't see verbage exchanged between White people, even if it includes stereotypes against Black people, as something they should be reprimanded for. What about how your words are affecting you? How about the thought that the more slurs you reiterate in "safe settings" the more insincere you are when dealing with Black people face-to-face. Or is that of no concern to you? After all, you are not hanging up a sign over a water fountain reading, "Whites Only". You just quietly assume that you lost out on a job offer not because you were lacking in anything; but because the Black woman who got the job instead was needed to make a quota.
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Jews have had a great track record with civil and social rights in America. Mr. Berger is helping to carry on that tradition, but it seems as if the days of Jews comfortably identifying and supporting Black American's inequity are behind us. They say (and I have no idea who "they" are!) that it is because of Black Anti-Semitism and bridge burning. Perhaps. But I but you that it also has to do with more tolerance of White Jews among non-Jewish White people. Mr. Berger's father is a great case in point. Because mental illness disrupted his professional career significantly, they were poor and lived in the public housing projects. Forget about them being accepted by the White mainstream; they were only marginally accepted by their Jewish peers; constantly appealing for tzedaka and Hebrew school scholarships - they were outcasts. Just like the Native Americans banded with Black people in the 19th century because they were all at the bottom of the totem pole anyway - fighting over the same crumbs. But somewhere along the line (and many intermarriages later), Jews became not so "dirty" and more "interesting" and appreciated for adding to America's diversity. Plus the shtetl walls were being broken and non-Jewish White people saw that Jews didn't have horns and hook noses; but looked quite similar to Italians. Hmmmm...no so bad. Ok, your in the club. Don't go near the VIP room; but you're in.
After waiting so long in the rain and cold - why be concerned with those who were not "worthy enough" to be chosen along with you?
Ultimately, it's a shame; because Jews are in a wonderful position to straddle both worlds. To understand the damage that unfounded assumptions based on race can do. It one thing to have pity on the victims of racism; but another to have clear knowledge that your ancestors also suffered unspeakable inhumanities and crimes committed to them - just because of they way they were born. They wrote about it; struggled to pass this knowledge on so that their descendants can forever know the pain that Jews had to endure. Yet it falls down as a meaningless trinkett if the Jew of today sees no issue with harboring and tolerating thoughts of inferiority of another human being because of their genes.
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So don't be scared. Don't be defensive. Racism unlike your race can be addressed and obliterated; as long as you are willing to acknowledge the problem. You see, the
"White Lies" are
not the lies told to Black people by White people, but rather the lies that White people tell themselves about Black people; including, "If Oprah Winfrey can be a success without our help, any Black person can!"
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