When I read the article earlier today I mistakenly saw an 'N' in owed. "We're owned."

I'm not sure there is a whole lot of difference in the two versions. when it comes to people like Jeremiah Wright

I would add that the color of ones skin is not an insurmountable barrier if one applies oneself.

Prime examples are people from the Indian subcontinent who have a dark complexion and excel in academic pursuits.

African Americans were brought to this country whithout their consent. Then they were seperated from their families and their culture. It is only in the past 50 years that African Americans have been considered eqaul, if not fully human, in the United States. African American culture is still in its infancy and is trying to figure out its place in the American landscape. I have seen this same victimhood, and I say this as an observant Jew, in the Jewish communtiy. I see it not in the support of the Jewish community in general, but in the support of Israeli policie even when they go against our better judgement. The Shoah tore at the fabric of our community, but we still were able to find out center in the Torah. As two groups of people who have known slavery in our past, we must work to help the African American community find its center. This is why Heschel marched with Martin Luther King. I worry that your blog often seeks to sensationalize, rather than increase understanding. I worry that with a relative security that we as Jews have not known often, we face the prospect of moving from victims to perpetrators. INcreasing understanding is the only way to bring about tikkun olam, the healing of the world.

David, I am shocked that you consider black people to be child like, as though they were cut off from the rest of the World, as if they were raised by wolves.

Black people in the US have a culture. You seem to dismiss it. Black people survived slavery and segregation with their own institutions, their churches, their families, their music, their social network, their leaders.

Slavery ended 150 years ago.

Officially sanctioned Segregation ended in the '60s THANKS to the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and thanks to the media for exposing the horrors of segregation and the attempts by whites to maintain the status quo of segregation.

You seem to be more comfortable as a victim. To each his own. But thank GOD and the USA for there is an Israel.

Israel has many enemies, Israel is hated, but Jews were hated before 1948 and Jews depended on the governments of the European countries they lived in to protect them. Those governments and neighbors did not.

I believe it's better to be hated by those who want to see you dead and have the means to defend yourself and fight your enemy and defeat your enemy rather than be totally demoralized, hopeless, helpless, and resigned to your fate.

You believe that black people are in their infancy learning to live like free people, with equal rights and expectations.

I suggest that YOU DAVID are in your infancy, facing the uncomfortable task of being part of a people who will no longer be subject to the cruel whims of other people.

I worry that your blog often seeks to sensationalize, rather than increase understanding.

Sol didn't write this post, I [Mary] did, although I can't really say I 'wrote' it because I just quoted part of the essay and linked to it. Sorry it was such a short post, I've been busy with Easter preparations, getting my whole Irish/English/Swedish family fed, buying Easter bunnies, that kind of thing.

My [Irish] history is full of victimhood too; English colonization of Ireland, hundreds of years of British rule, British mismanagement leading to a famine in which about a million Irish died and millions were displaced. Then they came to America, where they weren't wanted, and where want ads read 'No Irish need apply".

But, things change, and most Irish in America are doing fairly well. The Celtic Tiger [Ireland] is also doing well. In fact, Ireland is outperforming Britain economically. The Irish community, like most immigrant communities, was victimized, but the majority of people didn't feel that they were "owed" They thought that living well was the best revenge. And it is.

I worry that with a relative security that we as Jews have not known often, we face the prospect of moving from victims to perpetrators.

The world does not consist of only "victims" and "perpetrators". That's a very zero-sum way of looking at things. Relative security increases opportunity, increasing opportunity benefits everyone.

The US has been better to the Irish and Jews than the smug British ever were.

And the Irish and the Jews have given, contributed, much to the US, and the US has benefited greatly.

Mary, I hope you and your family had a Happy Easter.

Thanks, Eddie!

Mary, thank you for the thoughtful reply. In my opinion, it is this sort of dioluge that allows people with different opinions to engage in conversations that move the issues forward.

David, I wrote that African-America culture, as oppossed to African culture or African Americans individually, is still finding its center in the American landscape. I believe that, as Jews, we too have know what it feels like to be marginalized amd should therefore be ready to advocate for others when we see injustice.

What makes me uneasy is your final paragraph. All bold and words in caps, in my opinion, are meant to imply anger/shouting. This is a great way of stopping a conversation rather than engaging in it. It is my belief that deacreasing dialouge does not do us any good. In the last paragraph you also say that I am uncomforable being part of a people that will no longer be subject to the cruel whims of others.

This statement seems to imply that you are speaking on a uniform opinion in the Jewish community. We (Jews), as a people, are not unified in how we deal with conflict. Not within our shuls, our schools or Israel. We speak in no such unified voice. What we do have is rich history of asking questions and engaging in thoughtful questions. That, in my opinon, is what we should be doing if we wish to move forward rather than backwords.