This was used by one of the editors of this site as a confirmation class speech at Shir Chadosh synogoge in Metaire, Louisiana back in May 2005.
“Jerry Seinfeld once said “the black and white cookie. I love the black and white cookie. Two people of flavor living side by side It’s a wonderful thing isn’t it?”
The black and white cookie portrays a beautiful image. The perfect balance between the African Americans and the Jews can form a sweet “cookie” or harmony. During the Civil Rights Movement, Jews did a lot to fight for their “persecuted brothers”. Many Jewish lawyers helped battle cases in the courtroom. They helped defeat Jim Crow and as a result housing and jobs could be opened to all Americans, regardless of the race.
I believe the main reason that the Jewish people supported African Americans is because we realize “hatred encompasses us all” If we did not stop the prejudist and bigotry going around, that same hate and anger could eventually come against us. If we allowed people to be comfortable and accept these negative attitudes about African Americans then we may be the next people to receive this injustice. So the Jews tryed to put a stop to this and played a huge role in the Civil Rights Movement. But as years started to pass, the perfect “black and white cookie” started to crumble.
One of the greatest tools of communication in this century is music. Everyone respects music artists and will do and believe anything these people discuss in their songs. What leads the pack of this musical bunch? Rap! Rap CDs have made 10 percent of all record sales since 1999. They are adored by many and have almost total freedom on the topics they rap about. And who is there audience? Teenagers are the main listeners of this music. Rap music can express poverty, hatred, violence, and yes…. even Anti-Semetic messages.
Public Enemy, a very popular and influential group have produced a number of songs with negative views toward the Jewish people. One song “Swindlers Lust” play on words from “Schindlers List” includes these lyrics: “More dollars, more cents for the big six, Another million claiming they innocence. Is it any wonder black folks going under.” These lyrics question the fact that over 6 million jews died during the Nazi campaign during the Holocaust. Also it even hints at that the problems of the African Americans should be blamed on the success of the Jews. Public Enemy put out another song called “Welcome to the Terrordome” which has the lines “Crucification aint no fiction, So called chosen frozen, apology to whoever pleases, still they got me like Jesus” This discusses the accusation that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.
Another famous artist, dubbed the “king of pop”, Michael Jackson produced a song called “They Don’t Care About Us.” In it this song the lines “Jew me, Sue me, Kick me, Kike me.” The derogatory word kike is used. Also the term Jew is used as a verb which can have the definition of being cheated out of money. This is horrid. 5 years ago you could flip to any channel on the television or radio and would hear about adoring fans discussing how much they loved and respected people like Michael Jackson. What is happening is millions of fans of rap and hip hop music are being exposed to the thought that it is allright to insult the Jews and use words like “kike” in regular dialouge.
What we, as Jews, need to do is show these influenced people that we are not all right with being treated in this fashion. No one should become used to being called words like “kike”. It is just immoral. We also can not just point the fingers, we must also set examples. Meaning, we can not say derragatory terms about other races and religions. Words like “shvatzi” an old yiddish word have to be erased from our regular conversations. We can not expect people to stop saying hateful words to us if we do not in return stop saying hateful words toward them.
I understand that me standing up here today discussing the anti semetic lyrics of rap and hip hop music can seem quite odd. My point is that prejudice is going past the dinner table at a home between each generation, it is reaching our media. This hate can move quite fast and infect anything along the way. If we do not attempt to settle our differences with the other people in the world, there will be no hope for the future of humanity. Through my years of growing up I have learned that though there are people who rape, cheat, steal, and put down others; there is still hope for the human race and people like me need to keep that flame lit. It is very easy to put all your problems on someone else but you must admit your faults and work hard. Only by doing this, can you truly be a successful and a respected person in your community.”
