{"id":27477,"date":"2013-01-11T03:29:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T03:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=27477"},"modified":"2013-01-11T03:29:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T03:29:31","slug":"welcome-please-check-your-identity-at-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=27477","title":{"rendered":"Welcome! Please Check Your Identity at the Door"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.rj.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/27\/welcome-please-check-your-identity-at-the-door\/\" target=\"_blank\">Welcome! Please Check Your Identity at the Door<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rj.org\" target=\"_blank\">RJ.org: News &amp; Views of Reform Jews<\/a><br \/>\n2012-06-27<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bechollashon.org\/speakers\/schwartz.php\" target=\"_blank\">Lacey Schwartz<\/a><\/strong>, National Outreach\/New York Regional Director<br \/>\n<em>Be\u2019chol Lashon<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who was planning on enrolling her daughter in a local Hebrew school, a decision she is now reconsidering. Why? After meeting with the school\u2019s principal and expressing her concerns about the unique challenges of race in this setting, the principal smiled and earnestly told her not to worry, \u201cWe have had African-American kids before. We are truly a colorblind school.\u201d A nice gesture, but most thoughtful people know color blindness to be negative\u2014and not just for traffic lights and fashion choices. Though well intentioned, dismissing students\u2019 racial identities does not signify acceptance. Yet, in the world of synagogues and Jewish camps, color blindness is often touted as plus.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nI can appreciate the desire for racial neutrality that motivates people who claim not to see race. To them, it speaks to a vision of a world where the color of one\u2019s skin does not matter. But, as a Black Jewish woman in America, I know this to be wishful thinking. Even if I wanted to discard my racial identity, I can\u2019t. Moreover, I don\u2019t want\u2014nor should I have to\u2014leave a part of my identity at the door when I walk into a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jewish_Community_Center\" target=\"_blank\">JCC<\/a> or synagogue. I want to be fully present. For me, Jewish peoplehood means including race in the conversation, not pretending it doesn\u2019t exist&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.rj.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/27\/welcome-please-check-your-identity-at-the-door\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome! Please Check Your Identity at the Door RJ.org: News &amp; Views of Reform Jews 2012-06-27 Lacey Schwartz, National Outreach\/New York Regional Director Be\u2019chol Lashon I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who was planning on enrolling her daughter in a local Hebrew school, a decision she is now reconsidering. Why? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,125,3601,8,820,20],"tags":[3602,13327,13326],"class_list":["post-27477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-identitydevelopment","category-judaism","category-media-archive","category-religion","category-usa","tag-lacey-schwartz","tag-rj-org","tag-rj-org-news-views-of-reform-jews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}