"My new Palestinian neighbor" (Reddit)

Post Reply New Topic

https://www.reddit.com/r/Jewish/comments/18ccrk0/my_new_palestinian_neighbor/

Any thoughts as to what, if anything, the rest of us can do to help make mutually humanizing encounters like this more likely to happen?

In my experience, this is typical American behavior, at least if Americans are left alone and nobody tries to radicalize them.

I think this varies a lot depending on what part of the country you live in. Your profile says "Location: Mid-Atlantic US," which is a relatively tolerant part of the country. Even here, though, it varies by location, even by neighborhood.

My partner has encountered a lot of bigotry on account of his speech impairment, which a lot of people have mistaken for a foreign accent and told him to "go back to whatever country you came from" (even though he was born here, and one of his ancestors came here over 400 years ago). He has lived in various places around the country including California, Arizona, Florida, and New York. He currently lives with me. Our neighborhood, in south-central Queens, is the one place he has ever lived where he has encountered this kind of bigotry only very rarely. Everywhere else he has lived, it's common.