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May. 9th, 2018
14 yr old boy walking home from yeshiva in Kew Gardens last Sunday night assaulted by a white, male adult for being a "Jew boy."
I will never stoop to pick up change. I can feel my fist clench automatically when I hear change drop. Do you know why?
When I was growing up, I attended Maimonides School and commuted by T from Brookline Hills. As it happens, this T stop is next to the Brookline High School.
Every now and then, some teens would decide to harass the Jewish kids. Often the prelude to this fun little game was to pitch pennies at us.
Often the fun just ended with pitched pennies and some shouted insults and laughs. But every now and then, however, this was insufficient fun -- especially when you are coming home late and waiting for the T on your own. Happily for me, people often confuse fat for weak. Also fortunately for me, most anti-Semites are cowards. Strike hard with berserker fury and noise and the casual anti-Semite and his friend will scurry off rather than tangle with the "psycho retard" (pronounced re-TAHD).
The funny thing is, it never even occurred to me or any of the other classmates of mine to complain to anyone about it. We always settled it ourselves. We just accepted this as the natural way of the world. And it's not like it happened all the time. Indeed, objectively, it was fairly rare.
It did have some interesting lasting effects. I grew up hating bullies with a passion -- which is probably one of the reasons I do my day job. I learned to always favor fight over flight. And I never stoop to pick up change.
I will never stoop to pick up change. I can feel my fist clench automatically when I hear change drop. Do you know why?
When I was growing up, I attended Maimonides School and commuted by T from Brookline Hills. As it happens, this T stop is next to the Brookline High School.
Every now and then, some teens would decide to harass the Jewish kids. Often the prelude to this fun little game was to pitch pennies at us.
Often the fun just ended with pitched pennies and some shouted insults and laughs. But every now and then, however, this was insufficient fun -- especially when you are coming home late and waiting for the T on your own. Happily for me, people often confuse fat for weak. Also fortunately for me, most anti-Semites are cowards. Strike hard with berserker fury and noise and the casual anti-Semite and his friend will scurry off rather than tangle with the "psycho retard" (pronounced re-TAHD).
The funny thing is, it never even occurred to me or any of the other classmates of mine to complain to anyone about it. We always settled it ourselves. We just accepted this as the natural way of the world. And it's not like it happened all the time. Indeed, objectively, it was fairly rare.
It did have some interesting lasting effects. I grew up hating bullies with a passion -- which is probably one of the reasons I do my day job. I learned to always favor fight over flight. And I never stoop to pick up change.