I was reading an opinion piece in the Boston Globe yesterday. It was written by Steven Peljovich, a guy who owns a restaurant. It's a very good restaurant, and popular with the locals. But Steven is Jewish, and his restaurant is a Jewish deli. That shouldn't be a problem. In fact, his customers love his deli; it serves a wide variety of wonderful food, and people from many ethnic backgrounds eat there.
But over the past several years, his deli has become the target of haters. Relentlessly. In the dead of night, they keep putting antisemitic stickers on his restaurant's doors and windows. Other businesses in his area are not being targeted; just the Jewish-owned establishments, like a kosher grocery not far from him. Some of the stickers are anti-Israel, but others are specifically anti-Jewish. Law enforcement has thus far not caught the perpetrators, but the owner is mystified that this is happening at all.
As a local small businessman, Steven's focus has always been on creating a non-political and welcoming space where people can just relax and enjoy a meal together. But suddenly, he finds himself serving as a proxy for folks who oppose the Israeli government-- even though he isn't Israeli and had nothing to do with the policies of that government. And he also finds himself serving as a convenient scapegoat for folks who are prejudiced against Jews. He has done nothing to deserve any of this. And yet, this is now his life.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing is becoming a far too common occurrence. As he observes in his essay, "Folks once had actual conversations about issues that were divisive. Now, we retreat into our corners, wrap ourselves in our bubbles, and use the anonymity of social media to express opinions and spew hate." And some people take it beyond hateful online words: they hide in the darkness and throw bricks through the windows of Jewish-owned shops, or they put threatening stickers on the doors. "It is easy and cowardly to slap a sticker on a door or window of an establishment and just walk away," Steven writes. "It also accomplishes nothing."
But while it may accomplish nothing in the long run, it can be very unnerving for those who are going through it. And that makes me wonder how we got here. How did we turn into a culture where some folks think it's perfectly okay to vandalize local stores just because they don't like the owner's religion or culture? Like the author, I can point to social media or angry talk shows or viral videos that promote hatred of "the other." And I agree with him that many of us no longer have civil conversations about divisive issues.
So, what can we do to make the hateful discourse stop? How can we create a more tolerant environment? And how do we stop lashing out and blaming the wrong people? As Steven says in his essay, "I am just a guy who is proud of his heritage and whose goal is to make great food for all of my guests to enjoy. It would be nice if I can just continue to show up to my store everyday and focus on that, rather than finding hate at my door." That would indeed be nice. So, how do we get there? How do we let the haters know they don't speak for the rest of us? I'm open to suggestions, and I hope you have some, because all of this hateful behavior really needs to stop.
