A Minority of One
Fri., June 17, 11:55 AM
Recently I was reminded of Sharon, a woman with whom I worked at Red Cross Blood Services about twenty-five years ago. Sharon was from Ohio. She and her husband were in Connecticut because of his job, and I know she missed many things about her home town. One of those was her church; they were attending a local church that her husband chose, but she was accustomed to the Baptist church where she grew up.
So when Sharon happened to work a blood drive at a nice little Baptist church, she decided here was an opportunity to find a little bit of home, and one Sunday, all by herself, she just went to this church. To her embarrassment, she found herself the only white face in a black congregation.
Of course, she was too uncomfortable to walk out, so she just sat back and enjoyed the service, until the minister said, “We welcome a visitor today. Would you please stand up?” Sharon told me she was never so mortified in all her life.
“Well,” I told her, “you have never been in the minority before; it’s something everyone should experience.”
Maybe you think I was being mean. I happen to think it’s a way of putting ourselves in someone else’s place, a road to deeper understanding of other people. As a child I read about black people in a white community, although I certainly knew several of them. And I read about Japanese children growing up in the United States and Huguenots in Catholic France.
Of course, I was usually in a minority myself. We were the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. We were the only ones who had Negro tenants. (That was the polite word for them at that time.) Even when I was among my own, so to speak, I was different.
Among my Jewish classmates, I was Orthodox while they were all Conservative. And in my Orthodox Hebrew class, I was the only girl among a dozen or so boys, not to mention younger than all of them. Just when that might have begun to get really interesting, the boys began to study their Bar Mitzvah lessons, from which I was barred because I was a girl. The school just didn’t know what to do with me, and I dropped out. It was neither the first nor the last time I would find myself in the minority.
Last night we watched “Twelve Angry Men,” an excellent film about a jury considering its decision. I first saw it about fifty years ago, as a live television play, and I wanted U.D. to see it, partly because she is a paralegal and partly because of its interpersonal dynamics.
One of the first things I noticed — I don’t think it occurred to me the first time — was that the jury consisted of twelve white men. (The characters were all Christian too, even though at least three of the actors were Jewish.) Nevertheless, they were a very diverse group — both rich and poor, old and young, white collar and blue, immigrant and native-born. It soon becomes apparent that one man believes the defendant is guilty because he’s one of “them,” and “they” have no concept of right and wrong. About three quarters through the play, the eleven others realize that the twelfth is relying on prejudice, and they simply walk away from the table, refusing to sit with him.
This film — old, non-colorized — is still one of the best I’ve ever seen. All of the actors are outstanding; they just looked so young. How fitting that it should be aired when I was thinking about this issue.
What brought the subject to mind was a news item about evangelical Christian teachers pressuring students at the Air Force Academy. Is this what the United States is all about? Along with that were the recent reports that the largest growing minority in this country is Hispanics and the fastest growing religion is Islam. I have this feeling that some people are feeling threatened for the first time in their lives, never having had the experience of being in the minority.
I have spent most of my adult life trying not to put labels on people and not separating myself from people just because they are different from me. I read about Hasidic Jews who segregate themselves from the gentile community, and I think, you are doing your children no favor. They will have to grow up in a diverse world.
There are many Jewish people who don’t wish to get too close to non-Jews because they’re afraid intermarriage will dilute and ultimately destroy Judaism. And, of course, they’re fearful because they remember what happened to the German Jews who thought they were safe from discrimination just a couple of generations ago.
Personally, my upbringing leads me to suspect intermarriage as well, but I also think that open-minded people can incorporate the best parts of all religions. I would like to think that hate crimes based on religion can’t happen in America — until I read about some groups that do indeed practice and preach just that. Even though I believe those people are misinformed and misguided, and even though I know their actions are based on fear, the fact is that they do exist and they are scary.
The information that seeps through the bushes (ahem) reinforces something I heard long ago about political misconduct: the Democrats do it to their secretaries, but the Republicans do it to the country. Turning off the microphones in the middle of a debate is foolish anyhow, but it’s really stupid to turn ’em off when someone — like C-Span — is still filming. No one can accuse me of being unpatriotic — at least, they can say what they will, but they’d be wrong — but I am very, very afraid of the Patriot Act. Guidelines are not supposed to be a substitute for thinking and analyzing a situation.
And pardon me, but Christianity is not the state religion of the United States. When you look for it — if you’re not too scared to do so — you will find that we have more common ground than you think. It’s that belief alone that keeps me from mirroring the actions of the frightened few. Maybe I'm a minority of one.
