Great comments, via Mondoweiss:
Reader JH sends along:
Story of the Good White Southerner
(circa 1950)I am a good White person. I believe in a separate but equal society. My red line is the separate part, because those agitating to allow Coloreds to eat in the same restaurant and ride in the same part of the bus with Whites know that this will eventually lead to social mixing and then race mixing, which is miscegenation and illegal. We must stay separate. Those others are just calling for White racial suicide by another name and they know it.
But because I am good and moral, and I am in fact a devout Christian person, I am working as hard as I know how to achieve equality as soon as humanly possible. I know that some Whites profess belief in a separate but equal society, but then secretly try to undermine it. That is not who I am.
Some may try to call me a White supremacist and prejudiced, but that is very hurtful to me and I deeply resent it, because in my heart I know that I am a truly moral person. About the only thing I can think of to say to bigoted name-calling people like that is, well, they must really hate White people.
Story of the Good Liberal Zionist
(circa 2013)I am a good liberal Zionist. I believe in a Jewish and Democratic Israel. My red line is the Jewish part, because those agitating to allow Arabs to return to their homes know that this will eventually lead to the end of Jewish self-determination and then minority status. We must stay separate. Those others are just calling for Jewish national suicide by another name and they know it.
But because I am good and moral, and I am in fact a dedicated Liberal person, I am working as hard as I know how to achieve Israeli democracy as soon as humanly possible. I know that some Liberal Zionists profess a belief in a Jewish and Democratic state, but then secretly try to undermine it. That is not who I am.
Some may try to call me a Jewish supremacist and a believer in apartheid, but that is very hurtful to me and I deeply resent it, because in my heart I know that I am a truly liberal person. About the only thing I can think of to say to bigoted name-calling people like that is, well, they must be Anti-Semites.