About The Jewish People…
Some of us as Black people don’t like or even hate Jewish people. Most of us who feel this way are falling into lock step with some of our National and International leaders who we perceive of as progressive or who we perceive of as having the best interest of the Black community at heart. Some Blacks who feel this way are also coming up with their own reasons, justifications and judgments for the way they feel. Some Black leaders seem misguided on this issue. I ask for a voice and patience. Some Black leaders may well have our best interests at heart as Black people in many ways, but hating Jewish people is not a solution. And certainly NOT a final solution… !!! What we need to do is analyze why these people are hated throughout the world, especially within the Muslim and Islamic world, and come to some conclusions as to how we can improve relations with Jewish people and help them to see the error of their ways. We also need to do this WITHOUT spending too much time and Capital on this because the problems of Black people should and must be our main concern. The reason for this is that we are a vastly poorer and less enfranchised people than just about every race on the planet and all of us—as Black people--need to take a hand in helping other Black people. God helps those who help themselves. I have made a proposal here that I think can help Black and Jewish people at the same time..., but working TOGETHER is crucial…
Jewish people are seen by many of us as a people of means. Wealthy, rich, established, successful business owners, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, profiteers, Wall Street executives, stock brokers, wealthy and connected lawyers, men and women of medicine, real estate tycoons, property owners, landlords, diamond mine owners, movie moguls, movie directors, movie producers, record company owners and producers, talent managers, TV executives, over-paid actors, successful advertising executives, merchants, accountants, money changers and bankers. These are the jobs that we envision Jewish people as having. (Certainly there are various other jobs of stature and merit that Jewish people also have such as teacher, mail carrier and so forth.) We as Black people, also have a tendency to envision Jewish people as running rough shod over the rest of us through the jobs they hold and how they maintain money for themselves and how they manage & control money. This perception is often at the root of why we hate, dislike, resent, feel jealous of or otherwise have distain for the Jewish people.
I have to say that the perceptions we have of Jewish people and money are largely correct. They do own a lot of businesses and manage money well. It is not an empty stereotype. Walter Annenberg died one of the richest people in the world. He disavowed his Jewish religion, but he was born a Jewish person. DeBeers is a family of diamond merchants who literally took billions of dollars in diamonds out of Africa and found ways exploit African labor and to merchandise these diamonds throughout the world. There are several other Jewish families that have gone into business and done very well—very, very well indeed. Does this mean we should resent them and not wish them well? No, not necessarily. Does it mean that we should be more like them? I say a definite NO to that also. So what’s the problem? Many of us have thrown our hands up and not taken a close look at the situation.
(I have to admit here that I have a different view of Jewish people than most Black people have. I have a tendency to find Jewish people very friendly and even funny. For example I think the humor of a Mel Brooks or a Woody Alan is phenomenal. I feel that if we can’t laugh in this world once in a while, what the heck are we here for anyway!! I like their culture and food. I have ALWAYS had Jewish friends. An older Jewish man who had befriended my father loaned me $800.00 when my father had NO MONEY to do so. I was able to take that $800.00 and parlay it into home ownership. It was the first home, an investment property, I had ever owned. I was 26 years old at the time. The income from my history of home ownership, which started from that loan, has brought me some $300,000.00 over about 25 years. I have no reason to hate Jewish people and am forever thankful for what they have done for me and for other Black people.)
Upon closer analysis, one can see that the Jewish people have done some homework we, as Black people, haven’t done. At the same time, however, we have certain innate mechanisms within us that don’t allow us, in mass, to exploit other people the way some Jewish people have done and continue to do to many poor and working people throughout the world... We are a more giving people and we have paid a dear price for that. But, we don’t have to continue to be walked on by so many of the other races & religions on the planet as we move forward into a New Year and a new decade. We can stand up for ourselves economically, face the music & learn how to love ourselves and be proud of the hard earned achievements we have made and will continue to make in America and elsewhere. And we can also expect better for ourselves as Black people…
Including Jewish people in on solutions for Africans—especially considering the new influence that Islam has among Blacks—makes this statement very controversial. But some clear and forthright thinking is needed here.
I am NOT saying that all Jewish people walk on Black people economically--far from it. Many Jewish people love to give back to the less fortunate. And they have given back to Blacks while giving back to the less fortunate on many occasions. What I am saying is that they don’t go out of their way to make sure that we get what we need economically. (Ultimately making sure we as Black people have what we need is up to us as Black people, not the government or any other group, religion or entity). Jewish people basically teach their children to take care of the family businesses and what happens is that all their money basically remains in the hands of other future Jewish generations. To ask them to do much else would be for them to perform a herculean task because most people look out for themselves. Black people are some of the last people on earth to understand & learn that this is a good way to survive and thrive into the future—by looking out for number one—you and your family, your friends and your people.
Certainly there are some people among us who have learned this lesson long ago such as Marcus Garvey, the Black Muslims and some Black millionaires and a few Black billionaires. They have learned to give back to the Black community while helping themselves. They have started progressive programs to re-build our people and our community and give back to the Black community. People like Danny Glover and Kenny Gamble come to mind also…
So we are learning. One thing we are learning is what Spike Lee learned before he went into filmmaking school. That is that if we as Black people concentrate ourselves in more of the lucrative & pervasive fields of study we will make out better as a people. Spike went into filmmaking school at New York University because he saw an opportunity to make money and to have some influence over what people do and think. The film industry creates images of people here in North America that are shared & seen throughout the world. This was a good reason to go into filmmaking. But with that decision comes the responsibility to make good products. He has done that and we could use another one hundred & fifty Spike Lees, both male and female. We can use more Spike Lees & people like him to help promote and advance the race, the progressive point of view and to give hope and more love to all of humanity…
Even through there are many other such examples, we are behind the eight ball right now as Black people. We need to not only learn new fields of study that are new, lucrative & pervasive, we also need to gain more influence with people who have, in some instances, turned their backs to us and let us dry up and die like dead fruit on the vine. There was some good relations between Jewish people and Black people through the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, (Some Jewish People, in fact died right along side of us) but for the most part the Jewish people have tended in the most recent past, to take care of their own and not worry so much about us. (The real truth is that many Jewish people made advances through Civil Rights and then turned their backs on the Black cause). The fact that Jewish people have concentrated themselves in the fields that make a great deal of money, ergo. Wall Street, advertising, the movie industry, accounting, record companies, corporate management, the legal profession, medicine and banking—is both a curse and a blessing. It is a curse because other ethnic groups look on in envy and, if they are not informed, may be out for blood.* [A little nasty secret about the rise of Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s was the fact that Jewish People were observed as having undue control & influence over much of the German economy when Hitler came to power. Hitler capitalized on this and made Jewish People scapegoats. A similar economic situation—with Jewish people in positions of controlling economic power—is presently taking hold in North America, I am afraid to say. This is of great concern to me as a progressive thinker and as a writer]. The blessings of having a lot of economic power & money are obvious—the Jewish people have the cash to make the positive changes and exert the influence & leverage as they see fit to do. This is one of the reasons why the United States has such staunch support for the State of Israel and on the other hand the Black community’s lack of influence is why the entire continent of Africa gets lit service and crumbs from the table. Certainly Black people could benefit from taking on fields of study that are more lucrative, but I feel our hearts have to be in the work. While Blacks in America are in many lucrative fields and just about all fields of study, many Black men and Black women find a calling in the study of theology and a dedication to Jesus Christ. Maybe such study could be augmented and mixed with other more lucrative study. Some Black preachers, male and female, have also made Big Bucks and have produced what has been come to be called ``Mega Churches’’…. I would be interested to know what you think of Black people taking up fields of study that are perceived as being more lucrative. If you write me at
BrotherTracy11@GMail.Com, remember, sometimes it is not what you know but who you know. Include an assessment of that statement with your analysis & messages to me as well…
Moreover, one might ask: why have Blacks and Jews not gotten along recently & how do we work ourselves past this roadblock? Calling Jewish People Zionists and alienating ourselves from their community is not going to get us any play any time soon. Unfortunately, this is what many Black Nationalists do. They feel Mo Better about themselves the more they call Jewish people who want a homeland Zionists and point an ever-threatening finger at them. This isn’t helping their community or ours. I have many Jewish friends and most of them are stanch anti-Zionists. I want more Jewish friends. I want to help Jewish people who want another Homeland to work with me at getting a Homeland outside of Israel and, in fact, I want their new Homeland to be in Africa. I know I’ll catch Hell from many Black friends for saying that, but I think it is a solution for Black Africans and for Jewish people alike.
I want more Jewish People to settle into parts of Africa, preferably into the area around Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. I have no contact with the governments there at this time and this is only on paper now, but I think it can work. Why do I think this can work? Some adventurous Jewish people could vow to work with the indigenous people of this African region and teach them management skills for business, learn the language, and help them as doctors and lawyers and so forth. Certainly the indigenous peoples would have something to teach the Jewish people also. Certainly there are Jewish people who want OUT of the current stranglehold and desperate situation they find themselves in with the Palestinian people and other Muslims in Israel and the surrounding states & regions. (The Middle East crisis probably won’t be totally solved by anything I propose here, but I think tensions can be lessened and the whole picture can be made clearer.) There would have to be certain regulations put into place that made sure that the incoming Jewish people would relinquish their rights to self govern for a number of years until they could set up a stable state. This state would be governed by Black Africans with the minority holding a MINORITY share of power—that would be for progressive Jewish people. I am NOT talking about an influx of the right wing kind of Jewish people taking hold as there are in Israel right now... So don’t get me wrong… That would never work. There would need to be all kinds of regulations and balances for power to be shared & to make sure that Black Africans, indigenous to the area, held most of the power for quite some time. This region could become a Mecca for development as more and more lives were saved as indigenous peoples overcame the diseases that are in that area right now. This could also have a positive impact on famine, lack of water and other problems in the region. Also: as more professionals came in who are of Jewish descent they could lend their professions to stabilizing the region. The whole project would get great media attention and be seen as a solution & a constructive alternative to some of the strife and violence in that region….
One thing that would have to take place for this to work is for a real study to be done to find out just how much land is already owned by Jewish people in all the African countries in the first place. I know they have land holdings in many regions, but especially in South Africa.
I also think there is a big need for more input and help from African Americans and other Black people throughout the world to make such a build up & reconstruction work. It would also be very important for any building to be green and sustainable. There would have to be provisions for wild life and any such development, as we have said, would HAVE to be eco-friendly. This is a small part of my developing proposal on the Middle East (A Sane Solution for the Middle East) included in Chapter 14 of this book.
There are other considerations. This project would take decades and would need a legal and economic foundation as well as governmental support from Africans, the U.S. government, the United Nations and from some progressive factions in Israel and many Muslim Nations. One of the other considerations is the fact that there is a strong and growing Muslim stream of influence running through the Black community both within Africa and other parts of the world including in the U.S. This would have to be dealt with in an inclusive, positive and proactive way. I feel other factions could help in this development of Africa. Any leadership among Africans (and Jewish people also) who will control this project would have to be in rotation to help avoid corruption and undue influence of too many powerful individuals. The African Union, I would hope, would want to take part, even though they will possibly not understand or be very suspicious of the effort at first.
What I’m saying is that this Jewish Development, may end up being an International Mecca for all people to find a refuge of peace, stability and solace—not just Jewish or African people. I envision this happening and plan to work towards it’s fruition in the very near future… All dreams start with a vision…
