In America, I’m constantly aware of my minority identity: the Jew. I had hopes that by living in Israel, I would not have to be consumed by this kind of awareness and be able to live my life as full as possible as a human being. The Israelis prove me wrong. Now, I am being labeled as “the American.” My Jewish identity does not matter since I am now part of the majority. But I am still part of a minority: the Americans. The Israelis rolled their eyes at the Americans’ presence on Ben Yehuda, begged the Americans to describe the beauty of the land paved with gold bricked roads, or mustered up to speak English with an American accent. There’s a push-and-pull attitude towards Americans but in all, the Israelis admire and love the Americans because of our political relations. As much our president is creating a precarious situation several thousand miles away for the Israelis, they respect him fully. They embrace the American influence.
But yet, I still stand out among the casual Israelis, who dress and do their hair differently. I like my hair clips and messy buns. I like my milk for breakfast. I like my A-line and short skirts. I like my lunch sandwiches lighter than schwarma and toasts. I like to be polite. I like to finish my undergraduate education at age 22 instead of starting at 24 (economic opportunity, people). It’s the little things that stand me out from the Israelis and I don’t care. Never have I felt so strong about my American identity. Yes, I remember considering running away to Canada and denouncing my American citizenship when I was 16 or 17 to escape the horrors of the Bush administration. Do I think that America is the best country in the world? I don’t believe that any country is perfect but its living standards are very high compared to other places I’ve visited, much more so than Japan. I would not be surprised if an Israeli attempts to marry an American for the purpose of gaining an American citizenship in a quicker fashion. My class last semester, “The United States History in Global Context,” was amazing. With each reading, I felt my connection with my American identity becoming stronger. Coming to Israel certainly put this identification in stone.
However, after asking a quick question to an Ethiopian security guard, I slowed my pace back to my apartment. As perfect we appear to the Israelis and elsewhere, do they understand that Americans have complicated feelings when it comes to dealing with black people? Here, I feel fine and nonjudgmental towards the blacks because this is Israel. They always have been treated well- never once they were slaves of this country or the Jews. At home, I try to be civil and friendly with the blacks since I grew up in predominately white area. I also try to ignore the prejudice and stereotypes and believe that all blacks are very good people in their hearts. Yet, our history dictates our everyday behavior. I feel that when I return to America, my feelings towards the blacks will change to having more guilt because of the way we are so loaded with prejudices and the awful relations that we had with them in the past. I do believe that America’s relations with the blacks really, really puts it to shame because there isn’t anywhere else in the world where its treatment of the minority group is so obvious and there’s its history too. I don’t think I can compare it with the Israelis and the Arabs as they did not take the Arabs far away from their homes, put them under slavery for over 75 years, denied them rights for over 150 years, and still treat them like crap for most part (hello Hurricane Katrina). Any foreign visitor should be in shock to see white Americans behave rudely and show racism to a non-white that they consider friends back in their native country. The deep South and Southwest are prime examples.
The Israelis can argue with me that their treatment of the Arabs is worse than our treatment of the blacks but I will end the discussion by pointing out that instead of violence, we simply put the blacks in the filthy steerage part of the ship for three weeks and shackled them to labor without any promise of peace or freedom. That’s definitely saying that there is absolutely no trust because we did not allow the blacks to react.
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