Turn the stereo(typical) up

Every once in a while I am amazed at the ignorance and assumptions of people.

As a kid, I had a strong identity. I listened to stories from three great grandparents, four grandparents and a handful of great aunts and uncles. I knew we were from Eastern Europe, that our families all left for a better life in America, and that in some cases, we left because of anti-Semitism.

One of my maternal great grandmothers fled her family's farm in Kiev, because the Cossacks were burning it down. The family hid under beds at a neighbor's farm and made their way across the Atlantic to settle in Philadelphia, New York, New Orleans and Los Angeles.

We were lucky. Most of our family fled Europe for America at the turn of the 20th Century. We escaped before things got really bad. Not that they hadn't been bad before. My other maternal great grandmother's ancestors fled Northern Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition (around 1509) for Poland. She was from Warsaw and arrived in New York as a child with her family.

I have friends whose grandparents and great grandparents survived concentration camps. I grew up with survivors, some willing to speak about their experiences, others reluctant even to show the numbers tattooed on their arm. In elementary school, I was obsessed with learning about the Holocaust, about the camps, about the survivors' stories, about why anyone would want to wipe out an entire group of people.

I was obsessed with injustice and persecution, and wanting to end it.

I endured any number of unsavory comments growing up. From someone I thought was my best friend telling me I was going to hell because I didn't believe in Jesus to being harassed by one boy nearly all of my 8th Grade year with swastikas.

As an adult, I've had less of that. At least less overt sentiments voiced in my direction. Recently, however, I had a customer ask if I was Jewish, and when I said yes, she commented on the smallness of my nose. She went on to say that most Jews have more hawkish features. She was from Eastern Europe. She is one of the reasons why I am not interested in seeing where my family lived until a little over 100 years ago.

I did tell this woman, who seemed in other ways to be intelligent, that we come in all shapes and colors. I try to see every such interaction as an opportunity to educate someone rather than shame them. They already have preconceived notions about the Jewish community, and it is my duty, as part of that community to be a good representative.

Sometimes it's about more than getting mad, it's about making a good impression.