We always feel left out when there is a debate about race.
Our family never owned a slave or participated in a lynching.
In fact the, first time an ancestor of ours arrived at American shores was on July 14th in 1863. Yes, that was during the infamous draft riots. After witnessing hundreds of black men being lynched and then set on fire from his ship he promptly bought a rerun ticket back to Lithuania. 40 years later his son came back this time to Philadelphia and stayed.
Today by virtue of our skin, we are considered ‘white’ and thus heirs to the racist heritage that bedevils this country.
We don’t think that is quite fair, especially when we are asked to pay reparations.
Considering how crappy it was for immigrants a century ago and how hard our ancestors had to work for their daily bread, calling them racists is down right mean and categorically wrong.
Our situation is not unique, in fact it is almost the norm. Considering the fact that according to the 1910 census, at least a third of all Americans were foreign born, a lot of us are simply not guilty of the horrors of slavery.
Perhaps that is why there is a growing disconnect in the discussion about race. We never were connected in the first place.
A lot has been made about our first black president, but as he reminded us over and over again, his black father was a Kenyan and his white mother was from Kansas. Until he married a truly African American woman, his connection to slavery was as distant as our own.
Being disconnected from the issue give us a different perspective from the descendants of slaves and the descendants of slave owners.
Thugs should not be given a pass to rob stores just because their great great great grand parents were in bondage, nor should police should get a wink and a nod just because they come from a long line of “Good ol’ Boys”.
The accusation of racism becomes absurd when neither the accuser or the accused have any connection to the systematic oppression and exclusion of blacks in American history.
We are not saying that immigrant whites cannot be racists, but they and their descendants cannot be guilty of institionalised racism that was the law in this land until 50 years ago.
50 years is a long time and let us imagine 50 years from now.
On the bicentennial of the end of the Civil War will we still have Fergussons?