|
|
November 7, 2003/Cheshvan 12 5764, Vol. 56, No. 7
In defense of 'you people'
BARRY KLUGER
Special to Jewish News
When we moved to Scottsdale in 1999, we had our home tiled. And with 80 percent done, the installers threw up their hands and said "Hey! We thought we could finish the job according to your specs but we can't. Sorry, man."
We were up the Hayden Rhodes Aqueduct without a paddle. We told the owner of the store we would sue for damages. He said, "You people!" Did he mean New Yorkers or Scottsdalians?
Fast forward to August 2003, on a trip to Europe for my 50th birthday.
While in Venice, I stopped to buy a battery for my digital camera and was shocked at the exorbitant price. I told the salesperson he was charging 50 percent more than the usual price, and he said take it or leave it, in broken English. As I took it, he muttered "You people." Did he mean Americans?
Last week, while sitting at the Good Egg with some business associates, I stuck to my Weight Watchers regimen and special ordered to my own specifications which sounded like the restaurant scene out of the movie "Five Easy Pieces." My friend across the table, marveling at my demands, shook his head and said: "You people." Did he mean the weight-conscious?
And it became crystal clear: As Pogo would say: "We have met the yous and they are us."
People who "you people-ize" lash out at others because they belong to no group, no society and no culture. Sometimes the "you people" are our professions, our habits, our regimens. But too often, they are our faith and our cultures.
My trip this summer demonstrated that the fall of communism has led to a rise of anti-Semitism, among other things, and the advent of free speech has spawned free hate. It's freedom of persecution without any fear of prosecution.
While in Venice, we attended a lunch with people of the same faith from all over the world, and if one accuses a people of being clannish, then we all owe our survival to our clannishness. It is not often that diverse nationalities have a common thread. Religion and culture are quite often separators but just as much are unifiers.
When we returned to the ship and told people what we had experienced, one of the guests said, "Wow, you people stick together," and this time I knew what he meant: Jews.
For those two hours over a luncheon table I didn't know or care about the difference between a Johannesburg and a Feinberg. Yet someone chose in his own hateful way, to make the distinction. But it only made me swell with pride.
Globalization, one world, homogenization and all that other unifying rhetorical crap is sometimes just that. Crap. Contrary to the contemporary rock song, we are not the world and getting along is not a substitute for celebrating our uniqueness.
While we should never lose sight of that which brings us together, we should embrace the differences that set us apart.
So am I an isolationist apologist when I bask in the fact that I am different than you? I am not like everyone else, and I don't think any of us should be lulled into the notion that we are all from the family of man.
While the other side of the world is being Euro-sized into a single currency for business reasons, is a single culture the next step? I for one miss the Italian lire, the German deutsche mark, the French franc. OK, maybe not the French franc.
Why is this New World Order eager to erase the borders and erase our cultures? Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein wanted to create a society where one culture was good, the other was bad, but today people in Paris are speaking French instead of German because good people refused to allow one culture to triumph over the other.
My trip to Europe opened my eyes. I value my culture now more than ever and I will not bristle when someone says, "you people." I will wear it as a badge of honor, and I suggest all of you do the same, whether you are Croat, Serb, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Greek, Lebanese, Sikh, Italian, Turkish or Irish.
What we encounter in Scottsdale, we can encounter anywhere in the world. But if any of us lose sight of who we are or where we came from, we lose a lot more.
I gather together my experiences and revel in the fact that I am a New Yorker, an American, a Weight Watcher, a Scottsdalian and a Jew.
And the next time someone says, "you people are all alike," I'm going to tell them that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day.
Barry Kluger is a Scottsdale resident and a weekly columnist for The Arizona Republic.
|
