Yes, it's happened, yet again. Another well known individual opening his mouth and blaming the Jews for his own failures. Very telling how when assigning blame to someone in general people tend to call them arrogant, assholes, or whatever it may be that they feel they can pin the blame for their indignation and own shortcomings. But somehow, when that person also happens to be Jewish, their Judaism becomes the main factor, and the conspiracy theories about Jews and power and money rear their ugly head.
Of course, Rick Sanchez isn't the first media personality to pin blame for his own failures or the world's ills on Judaism. Recently we've been treated to an ever increasing parade of bigotry in the mainstream media whether it from Mel Gibson, who in a drunken rant when stopped by the police said "Fucking Jews...the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." We also had the Hollywood Producer Oliver Stone not only state that "Jews Control the Media," but for good effect threw in that "the Holocaust is overplayed." And then there's Helen Thomas, chairwoman of the White House Press Corps who told Israeli Jews to go back to Germany, but I'll leave that one alone.
Indeed, we now have three major media personalities in a short time that have come out and said that "Jews Control the Media." Maybe it's true? Do Jews really control the media? Of course, the next step is to suggest that there's some greater dastardly plan of the Jews to take over the world. Jew are accused of controlling the banks. And yes, the White House too, just look at all them Jooz in the White House. Heck, Rahm Emanuel is the son of an Israeli and was President Obama's right hand man. Obama's campaign manager was Jewish and many of George Bush's advisors were Jewish. They were blamed for "pushing" the Bush administration into attacking Iraq, they were politely called the Neocons (neo conservatives).
So what have we proven? That people of the Jewish faith are hard working and successful? We'll good for them. I can tell you that my Grandmother at the age of 8 was marching in the back of the Chicago Memorial Day Parade with the African Americans in 1929. My father and his friends were denied entry into their local country club because they were Jews (they took their revenge by sneaking in one night and blowing holes in the golfing greens with M80s).
My sister was verbally assaulted during an argument in her dorm in college being called a dirty Jew. And in high school my brother was once confronted by some idiot that told him that "Hitler didn't finish the Job."
Me? I was once working as an Au Pair in France when I had a serious disagreement with the father of a very provincial French family when we were at their summer home. I told him that maybe it better that I terminate my services, he said "fine, you can take the train back to Paris tomorrow." I said "fine, you can pay for my ticket," he said "Even though you're a Jew, I will." And those are only the things that were said to our faces, not the thoughts and drivers behind decisions people made.
To say we don't experience racism and discrimination is short sighted and ignorant. If Mr. Sanchez doesn't think our parents and grandparents, all of which were also immigrants at sometime didn't experience a hard life and fight discrimination to build a better life for their children then he's got something coming. I'll bet that his life is much better than the one his father had, and that's because his father fought for him. I'll also bet that his children have been fully integrated into America, but of course that doesn't matter, because what's at issue here is Mr. Sanchez lack of sense of humor and willingness to transform criticism into self-improvement. But that's another discussion for another time.
Perhaps our Judaism doesn't prevent us from moving up in the world, and just maybe that's because we refuse to let it. Jews were an active part in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and we've always done our best to fight for not only our rights, but others.
Perhaps Jews have succeeded in becoming mainstream in America over the years, but it doesn't mean we don't experience discrimination. We just don't use that discrimination as an excuse for our shortcomings, we use it as fuel for pushing that much harder to succeed. And its something that Mr. Sanchez unfortunately is not capable of.
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