Racial Justice: Making the Commitment for Real Systemic Change

Charlotte Jewish News June 2021

By Howard Olshansky Executive Director, JFS

When I was growing up, every year my family would take a summer vacation. Though we were fortunate to be able to afford taking trips, we couldn’t afford to fly, so our vacations were always road trips. In the late ’60s, we took a trip to New Orleans and Houston. A big baseball fan, my father wanted to see the Astrodome, the first stadium with a domed roof. To keep myself occupied, I always took some reading materials. On this particular trip, I started reading a book called “Black Like Me” by John Howard Griffin. I don’t recall how I came upon the book, but I remember that when I started reading it, I did not know what it was about.

If you are not familiar with the book, it is about a white journalist who undergoes treatments to darken his skin. When his skin was dark enough to look like a Black man, he traveled to the South to document what it was like being a Black man in the South. This was in the early 60s.

This book had an indelible effect on my life. I grew up in Philadelphia where there was certainly prejudice, but there were no Jim Crow laws as there were in the South. The book had an influence on me not just because of what I was reading but also because we were literally driving through the areas being described. Griffin traveled through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana — exactly the states we were driving through to get to New Orleans and Houston. I remember reading about his experiences of discrimination in the towns and cities he described and then stopping to get gas or eat in the same towns. At one stop, I actually saw the remnants of “White only” signs. I recall this surreal feeling. I’m sure if I hadn’t been reading the book, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed the fading sign. Then I started getting angry. I was already disturbed by what I was reading, but now I had to process this blatant bigotry staring straight at me. The surreal feeling stayed with me the entire trip. I still recall that feeling of anger as if it were yesterday.

Last year when I first saw the video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, that same feeling of anger took over me. How could I be looking at the same level of injustice 50 years later? In April, when that same officer was convicted in a court of law of killing George Floyd, my immediate reaction was that justice had been done. That response didn’t last more than five minutes because my next thought was wondering whether this was really going to change this country’s perpetual history of systemic racism.

Throughout my life, I have experienced prejudice in different ways — as a Jew, as a young man who was friends with a Black woman, as an American, and now as a senior. As a social worker, I have certainly seen the overrepresentation of injustices for people of color in the justice, foster care, health-care, and education systems.

There are times I think we are making progress. I see more interracial and gay couples on TV and then realize that my own institutional prejudices are evidenced by the fact that I’m even taking note of this.

Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, I attended a workshop about Jews of color in the United States. I was astounded at the level of disconnect Jews of color experience from their organized Jewish communities. Are we that blind that this population exists or just ignorant in our acceptance?

I join in the frustration that we live in a society in which such deep levels of institutional racism still exist. As the executive director of Jewish Family Services (JFS) and a social work professional, I have pushed for actions that can result in cultural change as it relates to systemic racism. At JFS we are developing strategies that will increase our sensitivity to cultural differences. As a community leader, I take part in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives both within the Jewish and the Greater Charlotte communities. I know that these are all good things. But I also know that to eliminate systemic racism, we must own up to our biases, both as organizations and as individuals. Then we must take action to change our policies and our behaviors. We can no longer accept or ignore prejudice — from anyone. We must be willing to give up our comfortable places that deter us from learning and accepting those who may be and look different.

Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak Winer, director of clinical education at Hebrew Union College’s Rhea Hirsch School of Education stated, “One of the very first lessons of the Torah gives it a place of high priority:

‘All humans are created equal.’ This belief in equality compels action in response to discrimination, racism and racial injustice.”

Maybe if we all follow the Torah and take action, some day we might experience true change.