OxBlog

Thursday, March 20, 2003

# Posted 12:55 PM by Ariel David Adesnik  

JEWS NAMED BUBBA: Lots more interesting mail from OxBlog's readers. DM writes that:
Read your posting on anti-semitism in the South with great interest. I can't really speak for other parts of 'Dixie' but as a South Carolinian I can tell you that I have seen very little of that in my lifetime in the Palmetto state. For many years (from the 50's through the early 80's one of the most powerful politicians in South Carolina was Salomon Blatt...Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives). In the 90's we had a Jewish Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court -- Julius 'Bubba' Ness -- and as a boy I remember meeting, during a class trip, one of the powers of the state Senate, Senator Hyman Rubin.

The first Reform congregation in the United States was in Charleston, South Carolina and the Secretary of State for the Confederacy was Jewish. Also many of the business leaders of South Carolina have been Jewish. I can't answer for other parts of the south (such as the 'deep south'- they're a breed unto themselves down in those parts) but anti-semitism is not something that I ever witnessed. We have been guilty of other forms of bigortry in the south in our past, but in the social circles in which I grew up I never saw anti-semitism. Just glimpse of things from the Palmetto state. Again, I can't speak for the entire south.
It goes without my saying it that the prominence of Jews within the SC elite is absolutley remarkable. Still, I hesitate to consider such prominence as evidence for the sincere acceptance of Jews as equal citizens. Throughout the 19th century, Jews achieved remarkable prominence throughout Western Europe, only to have those same Western Europeans turn against them later on. Regardless, this sort of strange co-existence raises sophisticated questions about what tolerance is and how it is experessed.

Moving on: Complementing DM's Palmetto report, WG writes in on behalf of the Deep South. He writes that
I may be a bit late to this thread but here is a little evidence for your files. My wife's father is a devout Episcopalian in his mid 60s. He grew up in Greenville, Miss. His best friend in the world is a gentleman named Ed Kostman who is Jewish. They grew up together in Geenville. If there is a deeper part of the deep south I don't know where it is. Sonny moved to Chicago and eventually Danville, VA where my wife grew up. Ed stayed in Greenville. Presumably antisemitism was not rife enough to prevent him from eventually own 4 car dealerships. I've never had a discussion with either of these guys about antisemitisim but they treat each other and their families treat each other the same way we would treat Baptists, Presbyterians or any of the other weird sects we Episcopalians find in the South. In Danville, VA my wife grew up with a number of Jewish kids, so did my first wife in Petersburg, VA,. Neither places are pillars of enlightened thought. In fact, they are both as full of red necks as any small southern town but those people are in a very distinct minority in my opinion. In the big city of Richmond, I also grew up with numerous Jewish kids and never considered their religion as anything other than their religion. Of course we made fun of each other and called each other names and befriended each other the way kids do, or at least used to do before PC made everyone so damn hyper sensitive. It is also true that the civil rights struggle was going on while I was growing up and I never had anything like the kind of interaction with African Americans that I had with Jews.
Finally we come to the thoughts of AT, an Oxonian from Arkanas. She comments that
I've been following your posts about Southern anti-Semitism with interest. I found it very amusing that you would not be surprised at Moran's and Lott's offensive remarks based on the fact that they are
Southerners. We get that a lot. A Northerner assuming that bigoted views are rampant down South?? How shocking! Fortunately for everyone, it's not quite that bad. I don't agree that the percentage of bigots in the South is higher than anywhere else--it may be that our bigots are more vocal (and automatically more noticeable because of everyone's expectations), but for the vast majority of Southerners, the bad old days are over. And there is a striking difference between urban and rural views in both North and South, for the simple reason that city dwellers are more exposed to diversity. (Of course, people sometimes react to such exposure by becoming more racist.)

I would like to make one observation about residual prejudice in the South and the way it is expressed. The way I see it, a lot of older Southerners may seem inappropriate, but as far as I can tell, this makes no difference whatsoever in how they actually treat people. My late grandfather would make some pretty unreconstructed comments from time to time--nothing mean-spirited, but definitely embarrassing in front of your non-Southern friends. Still, I haven't met many people who were kinder and more even-handed, or less racist in actual fact. My grandfather's verbal gaffes, and the ways of thinking they represented, came from having lived almost his entire life in the rural Delta, where
racial roles were still narrowly defined (white farmers, poor white and black sharecroppers, Chinese storekeepers). Growing up in a relatively diverse Arkansas city (Fort Smith), I didn't have the same sort of baggage. By this, I certainly don't mean to defend Moran and Lott--they should have known better. It's very easy for people to take those
remarks as corroborating evidence that most Southerners are racist. But appearances can be deceiving.

My point is that there is a long tradition of decency and respect in the South. Sadly, it has often been drowned out by less noble elements in our culture, but a true Southerner will cultivate and uphold it. People who subscribe to this tradition treat everyone with the same dignity, and they also understand that actions speak louder than words. Racisms and prejudice are not only wrong, they are improper and unworthy. To us, the term "white trash" refers to ignorant, prejudiced people, not poor people. I only knew one Jewish family growing up, and only one black family (though I knew plenty of Asians, and Catholics), but honestly it never would have occurred to me to treat them differently. I just didn't think about it.
All I can say is that if the spokesmen of the South were as civilized as AT herself, then all of America would look forward to the South rising again. For the moment, it may be worth considering the relationship between thought and action. How is it that certain individuals openly accept stereotypes but still act in a fair and color-blind manner? What role do such stereotypes then play in the behavior of those who are racists?

In light of WG's concern about political correctness, one recognizes that such questions have to be answered before one can object to speech codes on ethical grounds rather than libertarian ones.

Before signing off, a couple of quick notes: DH writes back with a link to this article about that brief moment in Georgian history when Jews were the majority in said colony.

AS recalls hearing a British version of the Lt. Goldstein joke. Appropriately, the British version was more subtle. On a related point, I have to confess that I went astray in telling the Lt. Goldstein joke. The dowager in question actually requests that no Jews be sent to her home for dinner, not no blacks. This correction actually adds a level of sophistication that places the Southern version of the joke on par with the British one. TTFN!

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