Stereotypes hurt individuals

I am utterly saddened by Chronicle columnist Philip Kurian’s complete display of ignorance. Kurian’s blatant generalizations of the entire Jewish community—especially in the column’s title “The Jews”—were both shocking and disappointing.

On the one hand, I had the logical reaction of “Mr. Kurian just has his facts wrong.” He condemned the Jews into one “powerful Jewish establishment” with “exorbitant Jewish privilege,” which represent prejudices against the Jews and are therefore anti-Semitic. These references connote the historical anti-Semitic claim of the World Jewish Conspiracy, a powerful Jewish minority ready to repress others. Furthermore, Kurian uses the percentage of Jewish students at top universities to provide evidence of this Jewish power. He neglects to discuss the deep emphasis on education in the Jewish culture as a likely explanation for these numbers and that being educated regardless of cultural affiliation is a good thing.

I can continue to list his flagrant inaccuracies and misunderstandings.

However, more importantly, Kurian needs to remember that these stereotypes affect individuals. He stirred a sadness in me which I had never felt. Until today, I idealistically assumed that with education comes cultural understanding. When a swastika was burned into my high school’s football field, I attributed it to ignorance.

On my daily runs in Madrid I could overlook the swastika graffiti in the park because I could assume that the “artists” were uneducated. But these assumptions have disappeared. I took for granted that Kurian, as the former director of the Center for Race Relations, was educated enough to understand what anti-Semitism is all about. It is his displays of ignorance that are the first to have truly affected me. And I am heartbroken.

Sarah Levin

Trinity ’05