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osewalrusRemember D.C. Council Member Trayvon White, Sr.? The Representative of the 8th Ward who accused "the Rothschilds" of controlling the weather to destroy urban America? He an his staff (also from Ward 8) made a trip to the Holocaust Museum which was extremely revealing -- in some very unintentional ways.
To quote the article:
"The photo, taken in 1935, depicts a woman in a dark dress shuffling down a street in Norden, Germany. A large sign hangs from her neck: “I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew.” She is surrounded by Nazi stormtroopers.
"D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) studied the image. 'Are they protecting her?'
"Lynn Williams, an expert on educational programs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and White’s tour guide for the day, stared at the photo.
“'No,” she said. “They’re marching her through.'
“'Marching through is protecting,' White said.
“'I think they’re humiliating her,' Williams replied."
I am having a hard time believing that if we had a picture of a white woman being marched through the streets of a city in the Jim Crow south by Klansmen wearing a sign saying 'I am a white girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a black man' that Councilman White would argue that she was being "protected" for her proud declaration that she violated the miscegenation laws. (Why yes, there were miscegenation laws in Nazi Germany that prohibited "aryans" from marrying Jews. And yes, they were *just* like the Jim Crow south. You can find copies online if you don't believe me.)
But the fun does not stop there. About halfway through the 90 minute tour, White disappeared. His friend and general defender in the Jewish community, Rabbi Batya Glazer of the Jewish Community Relations Council, texted him to find out where he had gone. He texted back he hoped to see her soon, but he had to scoot for an event back in Ward 8. (After his remaining staffers finished the tour, they met back with Councilman White standing alone outside the Museum.)
Later, during the exhibit on the walling off of the Warsaw Ghetto, one of White's staff asked if this was similar to a "gated community." Again, I'm finding it hard to imagine that if this were an exhibit on the Jim Crow south, that said staffer would imagine that a bunch of South Carolina militia would be building a luxurious walled community for African Americans.
My feeling is that these questions come from the same impulse that prompts some white people to ask whether blacks weren't really happier segregated or even in slavery. It's a form of cognitive dissonance/refusal to believe -- because the truth challenges something so fundamental to your worldview that you would prefer to believe something utterly ridiculous -- like people were actually happier living as slaves or that the Nazis built a "gated community" for Jews.
Now I'd like to believe this could be a happy ending with some real lessons learned. I'd like to believe White was simply overwhelmed (shall we call this "antisemite fragility?") and ducked out because he couldn't take it any more. When meeting with his staff again outside the museum, he told the reporter:
"'I’ll be coming back to see more of the museum. I didn’t get a chance to see the whole thing,” he said. “But I think it’s a lot of education here, a lot of synergy here between what happened to the Jewish community and the African community.'”
But when asked why he had left, or if he still believed what he said about the Rothchilds controlling the weather, Councilman White suddenly put his cell phone to his ear and scurried off.
Prejudices die hard -- especially when they have become central to your identity. For a depressing number of white Americans, it has become an absolute article of faith that the only discrimination these days is against whites, particularly white men, and very particularly white Christian men. They will therefore go to the most outrageous lengths, bordering on absurdity, to minimize and deny things that contradict that worldview. Two black guys arrested in a Starbucks for waiting for a friend -- well, 'they should have bought something! And nothing bad happened to them, so it was really no big deal. People complaining about it only want to exploit it for their politically correct agenda!'
But contrary to what some seem to believe, this sort of racism and cognitive dissonance is not some unique artifact white America. It is a common trait of racism. And African American DC Councilman Trayvon White, Sr. would rather -- at least initially -- believe that stormtroopers are protecting a woman sporting a sign about defiling herself with a Jew, and will insist on it with the same vigor as a white guy defending the manager of the Philly Starbucks.
Rather than despair, I prefer to remain hopeful. Racism, and the cognitive dissonance that supports it, are universal behavior and not a unique evil of one group of incorrigible deplorables. And we have seen that, over time, people can learn and change -- even if it is so painful to do so they initially resist. But it takes time. And those of us who wish to genuinely address the social cancer that is racism should not despair if the initial treatment goes less than spectacularly. It is a terrible thing to find your fundamental values questioned. In a curious way, the deep resistance of folks like Councilman Trayvon speaks to how very much they recognize that racism *is* wrong, which is why they so fervently reject evidence that it really exists or that things were ever really that bad.
But sympathy does not mean giving people a free pass. I hope someday Councilman White feels ready to finish his tour. But there is still much work to do.
