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Another source of black anti-Semitism is the fact that the Jew is clearly different from other whites, with his proud heritage of a particular religion, culture and language. The Jew, moreover, had an entirely different kind of ethos—a powerful family bond, a tradition of faith in education—and a different kind of hope. He could aspire to follow in the footsteps of the Irish, the Italian and the German immigrant, who had preceded him out of the ghetto into middle-class success. Because of his color, the black man had no such expectation.
Black dislike of the Jew was intensified by a large measure of envy, complicated by admiration and even a bit of love. Negro Theologian C. Eric Lincoln points out that the Jew looms large in black "vocal folklore," not as a figure of hatred but as a kindly foil who is something of a buffer between white Christians and the Negro. He contends that there are countless Negro jokes in which "John Henry" and "Mr. Goldberg" conspire to outwit "Mr. Charley."
Frequently the Jew has been held up by the Negro as a model of hard work and group solidarity. Says Rustin: "Many a black mother will say to her son, 'Look at that Jew. Why don't you study the way he does and get ahead instead of dropping out of school?' " A 1964 study of Negro attitudes by the University of California Survey Research Center indicated that blacks in general were more favorably disposed to Jews than were white gentiles, and more inclined to reject stereotypes of the Jew as "clannish" or "conspiratorial." Sociologist Drake notes this feeling of ambivalence: "You hear comments "that among Jews you find your best friends and your best enemies."
When Love Turns to Rage
Unquestionably, the anti-Semitic remarks now being spewed out by Negroes are different in mood and intent from the casual insults of the past. One reason for the changing quality of black bigotry is the changed relationship of the Negro to the ghetto. Another is the shift that has taken place within the civil rights movement, which now excludes the Jews who helped create it.
Until a decade ago, the Negro could still regard the Jew as a fellow victim of white society. Now there is a widespread feeling that the oppressed has become the oppressor, and that the Jew has become part of the white Establishment. "The mood of the black ghetto is that the dominant WASP gave the Negro franchise to the Jewish community," says Daniel Watts, editor of the radical monthly Liberator. In light of their past brotherhood, the Negro is all the more outraged by what he feels is the betrayal by the Jew. "We expect more of him, and when it's not forthcoming that love turns to rage," says Watts. "The Jew has been a hypocrite. The liberal Jew has been in the forefront telling the South to integrate, while he lived in lily-white communities in the North. That hurts more than a Wallace, who is at least honest."
Filling a Psychic Need