Day 114.

There have been more cowardly acts of vandalism this week. They’ve affected communities where I have friends. In one case – Rochester, New York – the extent of the vandalism has been underreported.

From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

Elam visited the cemetery, also called Stone Road cemetery, Thursday and said at least a dozen headstones had been knocked over and some had defaced markings upon them.

From a Facebook post (with photographic evidence):

These pictures show that there are 21 gravestones flat on the ground. While there was a serious wind storm here last night (Wednesday night), the cemetery association has stated that they discovered the damage Wednesday morning.

It’s part of a pattern. We’ve see the same thing with the incident outside Philadelphia: the extent of the damage is being underreported. I am at a loss as to why, many of the news reports followed the initial police report saying there were 100 stones overturned. (The Democrat and Chronicle does this, above; so does the New York Times.) In fact over 500 stones were overturned.

At a time like this I’m finding solace in solidarity with the Muslim community who are offering their help in many ways – first, financially (as I’ve written here before). Now they’re offering to put their bodies on the line for us. There are many Muslim veterans volunteering to guard Jewish sites (be they community centers, schools, or cemeteries).

We will keep showing up for each other.

Day 113.

This piece is a great discussion of self-care as a radical act (especially for women, and especially for women of color), based on the writing of Audre Lorde.

I took care of myself today.

Day 112.

I’m horrified and angered with the way the President has used a Joint Session of Congress to vilify the immigrant communities that hold our country together.

I’m horrified that the President has said nothing about the murder of an Indian man in Kansas in what was clearly a racially motivated terrorist attack.

I want you not to forget what the President said about the antisemitic attacks that have been going on. Not during the speech tonight, but before.

He suggested, in his typically clumsy, plausibly deniable way, that Jews themselves might be responsible for the recent attacks.

This is not the first time such insinuations have been made about the Jewish community.

Below is the German Reich’s official response to Kristallnacht.

The German government made an immediate pronouncement that “the Jews” themselves were to blame for the pogrom….

 

Day 110.

Once again today the graves of Jews were desecrated, this time in Philadelphia.

Once again our Muslim sisters and brothers are standing with us. (This is the same campaign that was started to support the cemetery in St. Louis; it has reached out to the Philadelphia group to see if they can contribute.)

Day 109.

Not feeling great tonight. Going to go easy on myself because I’m afraid I’m burning out.

I want to draw to your attention to some incidents involving law enforcement detaining people and preventing travel. Now, not one month ago during the ban.

The visa of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Khaled Khateeb of The White Helmets will not be attending the ceremony tomorrow. The Department of Homeland Security would not say exactly why.

Australian children’s book author Mem Fox was detained at LAX and aggressively questioned for two hours. Just to give you a visual on this one, Ms. Fox is 70 years old and was questioned standing up in a public room in full view and hearing of others by a policeman “heavy with weaponry”. She was eventually permitted to enter the country. She contacted the US Embassy and received an emailed apology.

Here is an image from her latest book.

The final two people I want to tell you about are American citizens.

Eduardo Caraballo was detained for three days by the Chicago Police Department and faced deportation. His was born in Puerto Rico and is therefore an American citizen.

Caraballo said he repeatedly told officers that he was born in Puerto Rico and therefore an American citizen.  His mother also presented his birth certificate, but despite that and his state-issued ID, officials told him he was facing deportation.

“I’m pretty sure they know that Puerto Ricans are citizens, but just because of the way I look — I have Mexican features — they pretty much assumed that my papers were fake,” he said. “They were making me feel like I can’t voice my opinion or I can’t even speak for myself to let them know that I am a citizen.”

He says officers asked him specific questions about the Caribbean island that he could not answer, mostly because he moved to the mainland when he was 8 months old and has only been back to Puerto Rico once since birth.

He was released after his mother contacted her member of congress.

Finally, Muhammad Ali, Jr. was detained at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport for two hours and questioned about his religion. Mr. Ali was born in America and is a United States citizen with no criminal history.

It’s still happening.

Day 108.

Here is what I found on Project Implicit.

I have a strong automatic preference for abled persons over disabled persons.

I have little or no strong automatic association with science or liberal arts.

I have a slight automatic preference for Arab Muslims over other people.

I have a strong automatic preference for thin people over fat people.

What’s most interesting to me about these is two things. The first is that if I think about it for even a minute, I know where these preferences came from; I know what set up the framework for them. It’s beyond the scope of this blog, but it is perfectly clear to me.

The second interesting thing is that they’re automatic. They’re not something I can control directly. But I can do something about them. I’ll talk more about that tomorrow. (Also I’m going to take some more tests.)

One more thing is that I have to confess some nervousness about revealing my test results. Admitting these prejudices shameful. I’m working with that. I’m planning to work on my actions – on how I treat others. (I have a tendency to beat myself up, so I’m going to try not to do that here.)

Day 107.

I saw some pictures of Mike Pence helping with cleanup at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in Missouri. He talked about the people of Missouri inspiring him with their response. He did not mention the inspiring fundraiser by Muslim Americans that reached its goal of $20,000 within three hours. Why did he leave that out?

During his debate with Tim Kaine last fall, Pence revealed a misunderstanding of the concept of implicit bias in a critical way: he conflated it with explicit, or conscious, bias.

During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Pence chastised Hillary Clinton for saying during the first Presidential debate that police officers have implicit racial biases that may have fatal consequences. “Enough of this seeking every opportunity to demean law enforcement broadly by making the accusation of implicit bias every time tragedy occurs,” Pence said.

But researchers who have been studying implicit bias say Pence gets this wrong. In fact, he missed the most important part. It’s not demeaning at all to point out implicit bias. That’s the whole idea: The people who study implicit bias say just about everybody has it, to some degree, and pointing it out may be the first, best step to beating it. “Those of us working on this issue have made great progress getting beyond the blame game—making it clear that implicit bias is not the same as ‘racism,’ that its effects are, by definition, unintentional,” says Jack Glaser, a psychologist at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. “It’s a shame that a national figure would push the discourse backward.”

Pence was trying to stake out political ground. But he was also confusing implicit bias—an unconscious but measurable response—with explicit bias, ugly and overt racism or sexism. “Implicit bias doesn’t make us bad people,” says Alexis McGill Johnson, executive director of the Perception Institute, which studies why bias exists and what to do about it. “It makes us human.”

The first thing to do once you understand what implicit bias is is to understand how it affects you – and it affects everyone. The Project Implicit website houses a series of tests online which you can take to see how implicit bias affects your perceptions.

Take some time to go to Project Implicit and take a few tests. I’m going to do the same. I will talk about my results here tomorrow.

Day 106.

Today is George Washington’s birthday. In a fundamental way George Washington’s words were the inspiration for me to start this blog. This vision was ambitious, but it was flawed. While his words promised religious freedom for all, he held human beings in bondage, and helped to create a system built on their suffering.

In observance of the memories of those who did not receive their full measure of justice, I hope to keep doing the work to make this country better than Washington ever imagined it could be.

Day 105.

He finally said something. But I submit to you that it was not enough.

Steven Goldstein, the Executive Director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, said:

The President’s sudden acknowledgement is a Band-Aid on the cancer of Antisemitism that has infected his own Administration. His statement today is a pathetic asterisk of condescension after weeks in which he and his staff have committed grotesque acts and omissions reflecting Antisemitism, yet day after day have refused to apologize and correct the record. Make no mistake: The Antisemitism coming out of this Administration is the worst we have ever seen from any Administration. The White House repeatedly refused to mention Jews in its Holocaust remembrance, and had the audacity to take offense when the world pointed out the ramifications of Holocaust denial. And it was only yesterday, President’s Day, that Jewish Community Centers across the nation received bomb threats, and the President said absolutely nothing. When President Trump responds to Antisemitism proactively and in real time, and without pleas and pressure, that’s when we’ll be able to say this President has turned a corner. This is not that moment.

What the president said is not tangible action. It was words. After six weeks of terrorism this year. After people vandalizing homes and houses of worship and community centers with swastikas next to his name. After he has stoked hate against Jews and against Muslims. You can’t say hate crimes are bad after you’ve advocated for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering this country” and not account for the change of mind.

We will stand against this, and we will work together. Today I’m profoundly grateful to Linda Sarsour, who started a campaign to fund repairs to a Jewish cemetery that was desecrated over the weekend. The campaign is on LaunchGood, a fundraising site geared towards Muslims. Sarsour set a goal of $20,000, and gave the campaign one month to raise the funds. They reached their goal in three hours. (Additional funds will go to Jewish centers that have been vandalized.)

To everyone who gave: thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart. I see you. I will stand with you. I will bring my people to stand with you. You are the best of America, and we will not let you down.