Thanks for sharing about the Burns Holocaust series, Christine. As an almost 70-something (😅), I watched the full series this week. I don’t watch much about the holocaust anymore because it is so heartbreaking, and this series is no exception, but it delves directly into US attitudes and participation. I was both heartened by US organizations and politicians (FDR) who tried to aid the Jews of Europe, and horrified by the widespread antisemitism and overall xenophobia in the US. As the series so aptly points out, White Christians have always held these attitudes, as Black, Brown, and Jewish people have always known. But we White folks are just beginning to awaken to the centuries of horrors we have perpetrated. I liked your allusion to Critical Race Theory. Instead of running from it and passing laws against teaching it, White people need to face it squarely and dive deeply into the heritage of racism and ethnocentrism built into our culture and our laws and change them. As you said so well: “…we should be honest with ourselves about our moral failings in the past because it is only through honesty and repentance that we stand a chance to change our ways.”
I actually need to go back and watch the middle episode (shh... I didn't finish the whole thing yet, but I know enough to know how good it is!).
Yes, people who've experienced discrimination directly have always known what we White folks are up to! I do hope that we can come to terms with how we've treated other people groups, and stop being so protectionist (and ironically, snowflake-y) around our hurt feelings if we think we've done anything wrong. The whole CRT panic makes me want to roll my eyes so hard, but it's really captivated the Right. It's just like... hey white Christians, you ever heard of the idea of repentance??? It's the novel concept...
hahahaha! I think you are, too! Also, I've been friends with people older (sometimes much older) than me ever since I became an adult in the real world, I think! Feels like we share more interests.
As someone from one of the countries occupied by Germany during the war, let me just say the occupying forces would have had a much harder time getting the jews who lived here if the people had been less anti-semitic. How much is still a thing people argue about, but it's clear many lives could have been saved by the occupied people. People were more often willing to break the occupiers' laws for each other, but not so much for the ones considered outsiders. Very few jews were saved from the holocaust here.
Thank you for sharing that -- how tragic. Which country are you from? (though I imagine it's similar across occupied countries). Really sad how in times of threat and danger, insider / outsider status becomes more pronounced and people become more willing to do horrible things (even if just passively).
Yes, the bystander attitude lets a lot if bad stuff happen, and to already othered people especially - I wish I knew how to fix it, but I do believe it helps to lessen any othering, or try to deescalate it when it's growing. Which is so hard, and several escalations are happening right now. But I think our internet conversations, lunch conversations, cake-with-auntie conversations etc can all do a little bit, even if they can't do it all.
(sorry about not answering about which country - it's one of the things I don't say, because attempting anonymity. But I am somewhere in the Northern half of Europe.)
Thanks for sharing about the Burns Holocaust series, Christine. As an almost 70-something (😅), I watched the full series this week. I don’t watch much about the holocaust anymore because it is so heartbreaking, and this series is no exception, but it delves directly into US attitudes and participation. I was both heartened by US organizations and politicians (FDR) who tried to aid the Jews of Europe, and horrified by the widespread antisemitism and overall xenophobia in the US. As the series so aptly points out, White Christians have always held these attitudes, as Black, Brown, and Jewish people have always known. But we White folks are just beginning to awaken to the centuries of horrors we have perpetrated. I liked your allusion to Critical Race Theory. Instead of running from it and passing laws against teaching it, White people need to face it squarely and dive deeply into the heritage of racism and ethnocentrism built into our culture and our laws and change them. As you said so well: “…we should be honest with ourselves about our moral failings in the past because it is only through honesty and repentance that we stand a chance to change our ways.”
I actually need to go back and watch the middle episode (shh... I didn't finish the whole thing yet, but I know enough to know how good it is!).
Yes, people who've experienced discrimination directly have always known what we White folks are up to! I do hope that we can come to terms with how we've treated other people groups, and stop being so protectionist (and ironically, snowflake-y) around our hurt feelings if we think we've done anything wrong. The whole CRT panic makes me want to roll my eyes so hard, but it's really captivated the Right. It's just like... hey white Christians, you ever heard of the idea of repentance??? It's the novel concept...
And, no, I don’t watch Lawrence Welk reruns even though I do watch PBS from time to time! LOL! 😂 I think I’m actually pretty cool for my age!
hahahaha! I think you are, too! Also, I've been friends with people older (sometimes much older) than me ever since I became an adult in the real world, I think! Feels like we share more interests.
As someone from one of the countries occupied by Germany during the war, let me just say the occupying forces would have had a much harder time getting the jews who lived here if the people had been less anti-semitic. How much is still a thing people argue about, but it's clear many lives could have been saved by the occupied people. People were more often willing to break the occupiers' laws for each other, but not so much for the ones considered outsiders. Very few jews were saved from the holocaust here.
Thank you for sharing that -- how tragic. Which country are you from? (though I imagine it's similar across occupied countries). Really sad how in times of threat and danger, insider / outsider status becomes more pronounced and people become more willing to do horrible things (even if just passively).
Yes, the bystander attitude lets a lot if bad stuff happen, and to already othered people especially - I wish I knew how to fix it, but I do believe it helps to lessen any othering, or try to deescalate it when it's growing. Which is so hard, and several escalations are happening right now. But I think our internet conversations, lunch conversations, cake-with-auntie conversations etc can all do a little bit, even if they can't do it all.
(sorry about not answering about which country - it's one of the things I don't say, because attempting anonymity. But I am somewhere in the Northern half of Europe.)