Racial Comments 'Shock' Me Too!

This editorial in The Jewish Week, about racial statements among students --  and I have seen first-hand just how discrimitating students can be, not only among themselves, but to our new president as well, simply because "he is black." I wrote the following letter to the editor about my observations on what students have said:

To The Editor:

In response to your editorial on November 14: I am 13 years old and attend a Modern-Orthodox yeshivah in Brooklyn. I, too, have observed students, often with little or no information, make discriminatory statements about Barack Obama, simply because “he is black.” I have often heard classmates use vulgar and profane language to describe Obama and his plans for Israel. My classmates have repeatedly said that they believed that Obama was an Arab, not even delving into Obama's political platform, and believed that Obama wanted to condemn Israel and return it to the Arabs. A mock debate held in my school confirmed what my friends and I have been thinking: almost my entire school is anti-Obama, not because they disagree with him, rather they are simply put off by the fact that a supposed “Arab” is running for president.

Part of this is probably due to parents' bias on the election. Children look up to their parents, and these parents, instead of teaching them about what each candidate thinks, say that they dislike Obama because he is black. Parents, in turn, influence and even fuel their charges' racism and discriminatory feelings toward Obama — they don't encourage their children to find out what each candidate stands for, and to form educated opinions based on information. These children, of course, will not listen to those who try to explain what Obama stands for — they hear what they want to hear, and only that.

In an effort to stop the racism in my school, I consulted my principal on what I should do. He told me to include in my speech that I was to give in the mock debate/election a sentence about the unimportance of race, and instead, the importance of trust and educated opinions. (“John McCain”, however, won by a 3:1 landslide.) This, though, did not stop the racism: still in my school, more than two weeks after the historic election, I hear children saying racist and disturbing comments about our president-elect.