Al and Jesse Please Help Us: White People and Jews are Indifferent
It’s hard not to stop and think about what’s going on in Ferguson Missouri, especially if you are 50-something like me. I grew up watching American cities burn on TV due to racial unrest, and as a young boy, was perplexed that the offended were burning down their own neighborhoods. I still haven’t figured that one out. However, I have figured this out: people always do what they do, or don’t do, for a reason.
The news media has always seemed to be the experts in regard to why these things happen; these people (not politically correct) they be like, very, very, angry. This is understandable; no one refutes the prejudice that was part of our American culture, primarily in the South, for much of our history. Nevertheless, the cities I watched burn on TV as a young boy were primarily in the North where people of color have risen to prominence as far back as the Colonial era. I haven’t figured that one out either.
So, this whole thing with Ferguson is déjà vu for me. It’s a return to the exact same narrative I watched in black and white, night after night lying on the floor with my palms under my chin propping up my cranium case with perplexity swirling about inside. I am no less perplexed, but all this has me wondering.
Are white people and Jews indifferent? Even with the improvement of race relations in this country resulting in opportunity as well; i.e., our President is a man of color, a far cry from the days when the same be like, unable to vote, any vestige of the old days at all is met with the same intensity as the former days. They be like, burning stuff down and looting their neighbors. Yes, perhaps their righteous indignation is a bit misguided, but at least they are not indifferent!
Synonyms for “indifferent” are uncaring, uninterested, apathetic, unmoved, cold, insensible…Yikes! And consider the turning of the tables that has come about in recent years. According to the well documented book, White Girl Bleed A Lot, unprovoked and random black on white violence in this country is now an epidemic. Unlike the nationally televised episodes like Ferguson and the Trevon Martin case where the event evolved out of some kind of altercation, these situations be like, totally random. Recently, in nearby Dayton, Ohio, an Asian American woman was shot dead for the pure sport of it by a young man of color. Although such cases are presently viral in this country, they go virtually unreported, and the crackers (also pronounced, “cracka”) could care less. Where is the outrage? Such indifference is disgusting!
And besides being a cracka myself, I have some special experience with kikes as well. I was originally born with a Jewish name, but later adopted by a kraut (also known as “German”). I also have an older brother who was not adopted by a kraut, wetback, dago, or any other-than kike. At some point in my life, I moved to Dallas, Texas and spent time with my brother professionally and personally for 12 years. People didn’t know we were related because our last names are different, and that my friends, was an education.
My brother is the quintessential business man. His gig is building things. Certainly he has opinions, but has always been pretty indifferent to any that obscure productivity. As an observer experiencing what people said and did when their guard was down around me, I can assure you that Jews experience daily prejudice in subtle, and not so subtle experiences. An example would be the time when a Texas hick pulled a 38 revolver on us before I could say, “Whoa buddy, I ain’t the kike here, my name is ‘Dohse,’ that’s kraut!”
Never once, in the 58 years that I have known my brother, have I ever heard him complain about prejudice. Never once, in all of my relationships with Jewish people, have I heard them talk about the Holocaust. But I can tell you this: I know well what I have been spared because I have a different last name.
I think it is time that whites and Jews repent of their indifference and follow the example of the courageous people of color. We only now need to figure out the best way to take this stand. Perhaps the great leaders of the Civil Rights movement can counsel us? Surely they know; I have been watching them on TV all of my life. That would be Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Let’s use my hometown of Xenia, Ohio as an example. Should we burn down the east side or the west side? What should we write on our signs? What should our chants be? When we say, “No justice, no peace,” how do we define “no peace,” and how does that equate to “peaceful demonstration.” There is a print shop up the street owned by Christians that I could loot, but is that the proper protocol? They are white Christians, does that make a difference? Not being indifferent is very complicated; I wonder if Jackson and Sharpton could help us?
And this indifference is by no means limited to crackers and kikes. Ragheads, chinks, spics, beaners, pakis, chugs, city-slickers, yanks, rebs, wops, hicks, and even fat people, etc., could also repent of their unrighteous indifference to the plight of their own kind.
Al and Jesse, please help us.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Pearl, blonde jokes are made by people who are envious of us 🙂
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Hilarious….
hey I’ve been persecuted all my life for being tall. I’ve been sent to the back of EVERY picture ever taken. It be discrimination …
Didn’t someone refuse to go to the back of the bus to liberate me?!
Al and Jessie help me too!
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Pearl, we have to help our tall Brother John! He didn’t even have a song written for him to deal with this trauma. The short people were supported and their plight was brought to national attention. That’s not fair.
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Thank you Carmen… I was looking for the razor blades and then I read your comment.
>snicker<
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hey i am a shorty, so don’t bring up that song “____________ people have no reason to live”.
My name is Faith and a favorite hymn sung to me was “Oh For a Faith That Will Not Shrink”, so I got my share.
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Social justice? Are you hinting that Tim Keller might be the one to approach for guidance in this matter? Al and Jesse make this all look so easy.
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Faith…oh, how insensitive I have been towards you while trying to support tall people. Us white people have much to learn.
Pearl, you seem to be miles ahead of me on this journey. I’m listening, sister.
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But Pearl, I don’t even have a parking ticket. Every facebook quiz results in being told I am sweet and kind. This morning I found out I am 97% mature and 3% immature. I scored 17% in being a control freak. ( These are all quizzes my friends post on their timelines and it’s a temptation. I confess, it’s lost time when I could be protesting.) I promise to do better.
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Well Twitter is blowing up. I cannot even stand to read it anymore. I had NO idea I was of “white privilege” and the white people are demanding we all admit it. I don’t see white privilege in the White House, US Attorney’s office or even the police chief of my large metro city.
I have mentioned a few times the black president that “white people” had to help elect not once but 2x but was told he was an “exception” and we had the same back in Jim Crow days. Huh? So Obama is a token? Would Ben Carson be the “real” thing then? He grew up in the ghetto with a poor mom who could not read.
They have gone off the charts, but then Matt Chandler shows up to agree! Yes we must admit our white privilege. Thabiti Anyabwile wrote that people warned him about coming to America and how his son would be treated here and he worries, yes, he worries. (Hello, we have a black president)
I am telling you it is positively Orwellian. How can I agree to something so Orwellian? It is like the Ministry of Truth is on twitter. I cannot wrap my head around it. EVen the BLACK STate trooper is begging folks to stop the looting and violence.
MY PRESIDENT IS BLACK! THE POLICE CHIEF OF MY LARGE CITY IS BLACK. THE US ATTORNEY GENERAL IS BLACK AND GOING TO INVESTIGATE.
The Klan, ISIS and Black Panthers are using this as a recruiting event. Pick your side.
(How would you like to own a mom and pop business in Ferguson right now?)
But, But, But…..we show our love by agreeing with a lie of white privilege because a police officer shot a black man. The police officer is not white privilege. He makes peanuts. And a reporter pointed out his home on TV! There are massive programs toward the recruiting efforts for black police officers that goes on in high schools. But no, peer pressure makes that not a good career choice.
So why can’t we deal with the situation all by itself? Why does it have to be a race war about “white priviledge when we have so many people of color in positions of influence and power?
Why wasn’t Al or Jesse in Chicago talking about white privilege when 60 blacks were gunned down?
I had to visit a very bad part of town today for a project I am doing in a school. Is it politically incorrect to say I was a bit scared just because I am white and tensions are high right now? Well I got lost and some sweet lady on her porch was waving me down so I stopped. She laughed and said you are looking for ____ aren’t you? I said how on earth did you know that? She said, oh I could tell, honey. So she gave me directions. :o)
Let us remind one another that white people had to make laws that gave votes, too. Men had to pass the 19th Amendment and so forth. And white people had to help elect a black president. Why would they give away their “privilege”? Duh.
I am blonde and tall. And easily decieved. (wink)
Paul, your sign should say: Guilty of White Privilege cos I got a Kraut name.
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uh… forgive my white privileged ignorance but who is Matt Chandler?
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