Xenophobia

Ernest Thoughts

By Ernest ⋅ January 18, 2010 ⋅

Tags: anti-Semitism, economics, ethnic, fear, hate, power, race, religion, xenophobia

There is a song in the musical South Pacific about hate. It does not come naturally; hate has to be carefully taught. In early December, there was a PBS video about anti-Semitism in the 21st century. Why does hate seem to be taught generation after generation? Why do some political and religious leaders spread it? We have a good friend, who is an electrical engineer from Bangladesh. She often says about Al Qaeda and similar extremist groups (from all religions and nationalities), “They claim it is religion, but it is really about power.” Similarly I think that the Irish would have been strict Calvinists or another Protestant sect if the British had remained Catholic.

Power and economics go hand in hand. He who has the gold, makes the rules, and he who makes the rules makes them to get more gold. One of the blots on American history, similar to the “Trail of Tears” in which Native Americans were forcibly removed from several states to Oklahoma, is the round up and imprisonment of Americans of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War. Why Japanese Americans; but not German or Italian Americans; why in California, but not Hawaii? The removal of these people paved the way for a take over of business assets in California.

The word Xenophobia comes from the Greek and literally means fear of strangers. It seems to go far back in human history. Is this built in to the human brain psyche? In the pre-modern world it could build the solidarity that enables a tribe to protect their territory from another tribe. Were Neanderthals victims of early xenophobia in the stone age? In the modern world, it has been used by oppressive governments to keep themselves in power. Anti-Semitism is a very common expression of xenophobia. Jew have been scattered in small numbers in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, in both Moslem and Christian countries.

If the despised minority is poor, they are branded an economic drain on the larger society. If they are well off, the charge is that they took for themselves money and property which belonged to the majority. In 1935 the Nazi published a list of Jewish achievements which they said should have been accomplished by Aryans. Note that the Native Americans that were driven out of the Southeast states had adopted European culture and technology more than any other tribes.

Sometimes the value of a minority group is recognized. A nontrivial component of the American scientific preeminence in the second half of the twentieth century was the many Jewish scientists, such as Einstein, who took refuge here from the Nazis. In 1492, Spanish Jews were given a three way choice, 1) become Catholics, 2) leave the country, or 3) be killed. The Sultan of Turkey welcomed many of these refugees, and commented to the effect that the Spanish royalty were stupid to force out their most productive citizens. History repeats itself: when the Nazis forced Jewish professors out of their universities, Turkey welcomed many as Turkey was trying to upgrade their higher education system. But these events were the exception.

There are three basic types of xenophobia: racial, ethnic, and religious, but there is a lot of overlap because many minority groups differ from the majority on more than one of the above criteria. Jews are both an ethnic and a religious group, but not a racial group, so usually differ on two points.

Xenophobia is alive and still evil in America today, albeit a lot less than in earlier years. Obama, being our first African-American president, faces continued opposition in many circles, and hopes that his administration will fail, due to latent racism. Note however that more people from minority groups, as well as women, are attaining high positions in America, many more than a decade ago. There were anti-Semitic chants at a recent high school Basketball match between Upper Darby and Lower Merion and there was violence at South Philadelphia High School with African American students attacking Asian students. Many years ago, I worked with an African American at ARCO, who complained about prejudice against his people. I said to him, “I will Work with you to end all injustice, but don’t ask me to turn around and let you kick me because you have been kicked in the past.”

Our personal experience with discrimination, as adults, occurred about 40 years ago. It was so weird that it took us two weeks to realize what had happened. We drove to Nova Scotia that summer. Both coming and going we spent a night in Bangor, Maine. Both times, we had trouble getting rooms, the proprietors of motels waved us away. What finally gave us the clue was that crossing the border both times, we were directed into the line for Canadians. At that time we drove an English Ford which was rare in America, but fairly common in Canada. Also, neither Pennsylvania nor the province of New Brunswick have front license plates. We were the victims of prejudice against French Canadian, even though we were American Jews.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Czarist government in Russia turned to anti-Semitism to distract public opinion from it’s own failures. Some government official wrote the infamous forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which purported to be the record of a Jewish plot to take over the world. It was plagiarized from a French original which had nothing to do with Jews. Among the people who were fooled was Henry Ford. During the 1920s he had an English translation printed serially in the Dearborn Independent. The Arabs today have turned to anti-Semitism as part of their campaign to destroy the state of Israel. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has been widely distributed in Arab nations. In addition they have picked up some of the anti-Semitic material that the Nazis used in the 30s, including cartoons of Jews with large hooked noses.

As for race, remember that we all came out of Africa, some quite recently and some a very long time ago.

Ernest B. Cohen & Elaine H. Cohen
ernest.cohen@ieee.org

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