Two groups, blacks (I didn’t use the term “African-American” since this post applies to UK and other places) and Jews, have for centuries suffered egregious or at least invidious discrimination. African and Muslim tribes, some black and some Middle-Eastern were engaged in systematic enslavement and barter of other blacks, and in some cases whites as we know from the Barbary Coast Pirates. Some of those slavers sold their human chattel to European merchants, who apparently paid quite handsomely. Many of the slaveholders were barbarous. Men were split from female companions or wives, children from parents. In many cases they were beaten and dehumanized. In fact the U.S. Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”) in its infamous decision Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393, 451, 452 (1857) stated in party:
Almost equally revolting was the post-slavery “separate but equal” decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, [163 U.S. 537, 550, 551:
Relying on Plessy, Oklahoma admitted a student named McLaurin to a graduate school. Pursuant to a requirement of state law that the instruction of Negroes in institutions of higher education be “upon a segregated basis,” however, he was assigned to a seat in the classroom in a row specified for Negro students, was assigned to a special table in the library, and, although permitted to eat in the cafeteria at the same time as other students, was assigned to a special table there. The SCOTUS held that this treatment violated his right to equal treatment, and this and other decisions paved the way to the overturning of Plessy. See McLaurin v. Oklahoma, 339 U.S. 637 (1950).
While not as dramatic discrimination against black people has undoubtedly continued. And this is not limited to the U.S. Many countries such as Japan don’t allow blacks to immigrate at all. And even in Africa there is discrimination based on religion and other factors, many arbitrary. The destruction and demoralization of families through slavery in the U.S. has, no doubt, severely hurt the black family and continues to reduce their economic and social opportunities despite the erasure of legal barriers. Black communities are plagued by high dropout and crime rates, illegitimacy and other ills. There is now a focus on eliminating statues that seem to celebrate past racism.
The Jewish people have, for millenniums suffered severe and often lethal persecution. Throughout Christian Europe and even during the “Golden Age” in Moorish Spain there were periodic riots in which many Jews died and more were uprooted. In modern Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Moldova Jews were segregated in ghettos and a large “Pale of Settlement.” Conditions here were popularized in Fiddler on the Roof. Even upon emigration of many of them to the U.S. conditions were far from perfect. Many died in industrial horrors such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. There were official and unofficial restrictions such as quota systems limiting their attendance at prestigious universities.
Yet the Jews are usually derided for having too much influence, too much affluence and indeed for dominating policy at local, state and Federal levels. While there is divorce in Jewish families, the rates are low enough that even children of broken homes have role models in their peers.The children are rarely truants, and violence (except in Hasidic sects which is a different topic altogether) is rare. Police are not afraid to go into Jewish areas, and there is rarely a struggle between Jewish communities and police authorities.
The victimization of Jews has been among the most systematic of any group. I think Jews and blacks need to pull together again, as Martin Luther King eloquently urged. And I think minority leaders need to deal with their own community problems and focus less on inanimate symbols such as statues and problems of the past such as the history of slavery and racism.