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Racism, Antisemitism, and the Schism Between Blacks and Jews in the United States: a Pilot Intergroup Encounter Program Lewis Z

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Racism, Antisemitism, and the Schism Between Blacks and Jews in the United States: a Pilot Intergroup Encounter Program Lewis Z Racism, Antisemitism, and the Schism Between Blacks and Jews in the United States: A Pilot Intergroup Encounter Program Lewis Z. Schlosser, Regine M. Talleyrand, Heather Z. Lyons, and Lisa M. Baker A schism now exists between Blacks and Jews in the United States, 2 groups that were strong allies during the civil rights movement. The authors describe the historical antecedents of and contributing factors to this schism and present information on and lessons learned from 2 Black–Jewish dialogues that were conducted. Existe en la actualidad un cisma entre Negros y Judíos en los Estados Unidos, 2 grupos que fueron grandes aliados durante el movimiento de reivindicación de los derechos civiles. Los autores describen los antecedentes históricos y los factores que han contribuido a este cisma y presentan la información obtenida y las lecciones aprendidas a partir de 2 conversaciones llevadas a cabo entre individuos Negros y Judíos. Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: How does it feel to be a problem? —W. E. B. DuBois (1903, p. 1) istorically, people of African descent and people of Jewish descent (hereinafter referred to as Blacks and Jews, respectively) have been Hamong the most consistent, prominent, and public targets of hatred, discrimination, and oppression (Lerner & West, 1995). Perhaps the most well-known and powerful examples of these histories of oppression are the Maafa (i.e., the middle passage of the African slave trade) and the Shoah (i.e., the Holocaust during World War II). Despite this shared history of having overcome and survived extreme oppression, as well as a past alliance fighting together for civil rights (Berman, 1995; Kaufman, 1995), Blacks and Jews now find themselves pitted against one another in the United States. Underscoring this reality, research supports the continued presence of some Black antisemitism and Jewish racism (Fiebert, Horgan, & Peralta, 1999). The schism between Blacks and Jews has been the subject of some scholarship (Adams & Bracey, 1999; Berman, 1995; Daughtry, 1997; Kaufman, 1995; Lerner & West, 1995; Salzman & West, 1997). These past scholars have suggested that the origins of the schism are based on the economic divide between Blacks and Lewis Z. Schlosser, Department of Professional Psychology and Family Therapy, Seton Hall University; Regine M. Talleyrand, Graduate School of Education, George Mason University; Heather Z. Lyons, Department of Psychology, Loyola College in Maryland; Lisa M. Baker, Department of Psychology, VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, Brooklyn Campus. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lewis Z. Schlosser, Department of Professional Psychology and Family Therapy, Seton Hall University, 400 S. Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079 (e--mail: [email protected]). © 2007 American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. 116 JOURNAL OF MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT • April 2007 • Vol. 35 Jews, as well as the emergence of Black Nationalism and Zionism. However, to our knowledge, there is little recent scholarship on intercultural dialogues between these two groups. Given the commitment to multiculturalism by professionals in the counseling field, it follows that counselors endorse the examination and reparation of conflicts between racial and cultural groups. Furthermore, develop- ing a model to address the Black–Jewish conflict may lead to awareness of and solutions to conflicts among other racial and cultural groups. The intergroup encounter literature base can be helpful in understanding the Black–Jewish schism. Intergroup encounter programs (Abu-Nimer, 1999; Maoz, 2004) flourished out of a recognition of the need to focus more on process than outcome in contact hypothesis research (Amir, 1969), understanding conflict as a means of achieving equity, and the evidenced power of grass roots interac- tion opportunities. Of relevance to Black–Jewish relations, other intergroup encounter programs (e.g., focused on Arab–Jewish interactions; Abu-Nimer, 1999; Maoz, 2004) have stressed an understanding of the sophisticated historical and political complexities of the rift. In addition, these programs encourage equality between groups during the intervention, while also recognizing the reality of a power imbalance between the groups in the real world. Two other important factors are honest self- and group-reflection that recognizesindividuals’ role in creating and maintaining rifts and a focus on process rather than outcome. We sought to incorporate these aforementioned aspects into our pilot intergroup encounter program, which is the main focus of this article. In addition to aspects of successful intergroup encounters, there are models of intergroup encounter programs that should be considered. Maoz (2004) recognized three such models. The first is the Coexistence Model, which is focused on stereotype reduction, intergroup similarities, and engendering positive intergroup attitudes. The second, the Confrontational Model, high- lights intergroup conflict to raise awareness among majority group members and empower minority group members through this confrontation as well as help to define identity. Finally, the Mixed Model combines elements of both models through the sharing of personal experiences. Because we wanted to benefit from aspects of theC oexistence and Confrontational Models, we used the Mixed Model approach in the dialogues described later in this article. It is important to define some key terms. The first term is racism, which ac- cording to Sue (2003) “is any attitude, action, or institutional structure or any social policy that subordinates persons or groups because of their color” (p.31). Jones (1997) stipulated that there are levels of racism, including individual, institutional, and cultural. Individual racism is defined as interpersonal inter- actions, covert or overt, that reflect one’s internalized racism. On the other hand, institutional racism is the manifestation of these beliefs in laws and policies that create the power to systematically disadvantage people of color. Cultural racism is defined as the inherited racial climate of a nation or community as reflected in the media, cultural worldview, cultural symbols, and activities. JOURNAL OF MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT • April 2007 • Vol. 35 117 We include ourselves among the many scholars (e.g., Helms, 1995; Helms & Cook, 1999; Sue, 2003) who believe that racism is differentiated from prejudice and discrimination because it involves power. That is, to be racist one must hold prejudicial attitudes and have the power to oppress others; thus, people of color in the United States cannot be racist. The second term is antisemitism. Antisemitism is prejudice, hostility, and discrimination toward Jews as a religious or cultural group that can manifest on an individual, institutional, or societal level. Beck (1982) proposed seven categories of antisemitism: religious, social, political, economic, psychological, sexual, and racial antisemitism. Many scholars, as we do, omit the hyphen from antisemitism to ensure that the word will not be used for anything besides its original intent, that is, the hatred of Jews. It is important to note that the current taxonomy for race, ethnicity, and religion fails to adequately describe Jews (Schlosser, 2006). That is, Judaism is seen solely as a religion. This conceptualization of Judaism has many implications, including the nega- tion of the experience of secular American Jews. In addition, racism and antisemitism need to be understood and considered in the context of the United States as a nation where Whites enjoy the great- est power (McIntosh, 1998) and as a secular nation with an overwhelming Christian majority (Schlosser, 2003). When we use the term Blacks, we are referring to people of African descent, including African Americans, African nationals, Afro-Caribbeans, and multiracial individuals who self-identify as Black (e.g., Black Hispanics). When we use the term Jews, we are referring to people of Jewish descent and those who converted to Judaism; this includes Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Mizrachim, as well as religious and secular Jews (see Schlosser, 2006, for a discussion of the diversity of Jews). We recognize that both Blacks and Jews experience incredible within-group variability that can shape their racial and cultural socialization experiences. Although some of the issues that are pertinent to within-group variability might play a role in the Black–Jewish dialogue, a full discussion of these issues is beyond the scope of this article. Finally, because context matters, we limit our discussion to the United States, where Blacks and Jews have a history with one another and, unfortunately, where racism and antisemitism have continued to flourish. The remaining portion of this article is organized in three parts. The first part is the background related to Black–Jewish relations in the United States, includ- ing the historical antecedents of and factors contributing to the Black–Jewish rift. The second part of the article is focused on two Black–Jewish dialogues that were conducted. We describe the events and process that occurred when the authors (two Blacks and two Jews) met to have their own Black–Jewish dialogue. Next, we describe our experiences of facilitating a pilot Black–Jewish dialogue at the Boston College Diversity Challenge Conference (BCDCC) in October 2004. The article concludes with (a) lessons learned; (b) limitations; and (c) recommendations for counseling
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