Reply #16: Pardon me... [View All]

[everythingsxen]

but if I may, I would like to address a few of your points.

Nonetheless, I admit the essential point-- I was raised in a western christian culture, and cannot escape that. However, I was also raised in a highly charged racist atmosphere-- the American deep south, during the civil rights movement-- and while I have been accused of antisemitism numerous times in this community, I have never been accused of racism against african americans or black people in general. That is only tangential to the current discussion, but I submit that it is likely that if I were a racist in the ultimate sense that an athiest would have to be to be antisemitic, it stands to reason that I'd likely be a racist in the proximate sense as well, since that is surely more deeply ingrained in my psyche. After all, I actually experienced it. The persecutions of jewish people are history to me, at best, while the persecution of racial minorities in the south is part of my own living heritage.(Underline added by me for clarities sake of the point I am addressing, I did not want to take it out of context)

While I am NOT accusing YOU of being anti-semitic, I would submit that it is entirely possible and even likely that someone could be racist toward one group only.

Further, IF I were motivated by christian doctrine, it seems that nine centuries of war with islamic empires would predudice me against muslims as much as jews.

I think that would be more likely in Europe. As an American though, there is far more fresh hatred of the Jewish people. During World War II most of America turned a blind eye to Hitler's persecution of the Jews, in fact many U.S. companies were closely tied to Nazi Germany. Indeed the Nazi's were relatively popular here until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on us. So while we here in the U.S. may have a shorter history of anti-semitism, it is certainly a fresh racist undercurrent.