I recently read a piece in the Huffington Post by a Tanenbaum partner and friend, John Vaughn, on how the pain of Trayvon Martin’s death is experienced by a black religious leader. He talked about how Trayvon’s death is not an isolated incident to him. Rather, it reaches back to a long history of such incidents.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-john-vaughn/black-americans-trayvon-martin-and-a-lifetime-of-isolated-incidents_b_1386408.html
I then thought about the children and young Rabbi killed in Toulouse, really because they were Jewish. Again, not an isolated incident. It too reaches back to a long history of such crimes.
And then I thought about all the ways we define ourselves: by our race, by our religion, by our gender, etc. And how our identities are often targeted and how people are marginalized, victimized and even killed because of them.
And I keep thinking that it is time to acknowledge the links among all these histories. And to take action in a myriad of ways including the powerful trainings and curricula we create at Tanenbaum. It’s time to fight against the ignorance, prejudice and hatred that comes first. Because it too often leads to victims.
Joyce S. Dubensky
CEO