On Friday, November, 11 three cars were torched and property was vandalized in Brooklyn. According to the NY Post, authorities have classified these attacks as hate crimes against Jewish citizens living in the area. The attack took place on a stretch of Ocean Parkway in the Midwood section of Brookyln. This street is lined with synagogues and yeshivas that serve the mostly Orthodox community.
The vandalism included swastikas and slurs painted on park benches, and "KKK" was spray painted on the sidewalk. This incident occured on the anniversary of "Kristallnacht" which occurred in November 1938 when Jewish property was vandalized by the Nazis.
Why is it that even today we still see hate crimes occurring all the time? What does this say about our society and the lack of improvements we have made in this area? Crimes like these infringe on the ability to peacefully practice a religion, so what can be done to stop them? Will crimes like this ever stop?
It's really disheartening that people still subscribe to Nazi ideology 70 years after the Holocaust. Personally, I think a lot of it comes from being taught racism and prejudice at a young age and just plain ol' ignorance. Education is obviously half of the battle -- teach tolerance in schools. But if one's parents are just turning around and preaching the exact opposite, education isn't all that effective.
ReplyDeleteIn writing this post, I started to think about what makes one individual blindly subscribe to their parents' beliefs and another to reject what their parents claim to be true. For example, until I was in the 3rd grade, I honestly thought that the word "ignorant" meant that someone was from Puerto Rico. My misunderstanding of this word came from the fact that I had often heard my parents complain about Puerto Ricans and deem them as "ignorant." Somewhere along the line, I obviously learned the true meaning of the word and was able to reject my parents' opinions and form my own. But what's the difference between me and someone who subscribes to their parents' ideologies? Why was I able to rationalize what I had heard and form my own opinion, whereas another child may have listened to their parents' hateful opinions and simply accept them without thinking them over first?
I find this disappointing and sad, to say the least. In social psychology, we learned that because prejudices are so deeply rooted in a gut emotion, they are very difficult to alter. The most successful way to reduce prejudice, according to researchers, is to make different races/groups of people work together towards a common goal. Forcing people to listen and rely on each other creates a much different experience than simply being exposed to one another. I agree with Danielle that the way one feels regarding a different group of people has some do to with the way they were brought up and what they were (or were not) exposed to. However, I don't believe that should be used as a crutch or an excuse for behavior described in Abby's post.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, since Barak Obama's election, some have come to describe our society as post-racial; as if electing an African American was some sort of end-all cure to racism. I think that this term could potentially be dangerous; if people don't believe we are racist, it makes it more acceptable to casually throw out racial remarks because, hey, we aren't REALLY racist- we have an African American president. People have/will become more dismissive towards discussions regarding race, an imperative conversation in progressing forward. There needs to be a multi-faceted approach in combating prejudice and discrimination towards races, religions and other social groups. With this being said, as pessimistic of a thought, I'm not sure there will ever be complete acceptance.