Monday, February 25, 2008
Empathy II
I'm always shocked when I see people who have been victimized by prejudice victimizing others. I always — naively — expect them to have been ennobled by their suffering, to be empathetic, to know what matters. And yet the author shows his father, a Holocaust survivor, being racist toward a black man. Why do you think the author included that episode?
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3 comments:
I feel the same way. Like the black civil rights leaders who are now out leading anti-gay marriage marches, like Martin Luther King's daughter.
I think he probably included that scene for the reason you said: It's shocking. And it shows that survivors weren't necessarily saints, as much as people would like to portray them as such. It goes back to what you were saying about the honesty in the story, showing that it wasn't all just bad vs. good. And it makes you think, maybe these people weren't ennobled by their suffering (good phrase, kc), maybe they were just really fucked up by it. It's not as nice a picture, but it may be more accurate.
'Maybe they were just really fucked up by it.'
Well said, dear.
And Vladek probably does not see himself as racist. Most racists don't. They see themselves as just being "objective" and "honest." But even if he had more self-awareness on this issue, he'd probably make a big distinction between having racist thoughts about someone and inflicting physical suffering on them. Most Germans (most Gentiles throughout history) subscribed to Jewish stereotypes, contributing passively to a culture that became increasingly aggressive, until in the end, they could only plead that they "didn't know" what the Nazis were doing.
Yes, good point. There's certainly a leap between not wanting to give a black man a ride and wanting to send all black people to the gas chambers. Vladek would most likely see no connection between the two.
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