or the sake of argument, let us assume (again, just for the sake of argument) that since the Enlightenment no three groups of people in history have been more egregiously wronged than Arabs and Jews and blacks.  No doubt I could go on forever with this list.  But I shall stop here.  If I left off your favorite group, please feel free to add it. In any case, I am profoundly intrigued by the moral lessons that these groups seem to be teaching their children.  Now, lessons are taught to children not only by what authority figures in the lives of children say, but also by what these figures do.  I shall illustrate this at a personal level and then take the implicit analysis to the more general level of groups. 

What I am going to argue, alas, is that Arabs, mostly Muslims, and blacks have become significant purveyors of unvarnished hatred.  But first the personal story.

Although there are indeed many blacks in France, the five grandchildren of the family with which I am deeply and emotionally connected in Paris probably have no concept of me as a person who is black, the high level of pigmentation in my skin notwithstanding.  I have in each case been in the lives of all of these children since the day of their birth. 

Equally interesting is that although this family lives in an area which has many, many Arab Muslim families, it is also the case that the grandchildren do not in fact have a hostile sense of Arab Muslims as a people. 

In the home of this family, we all eat together, sometimes sharing off one another’s plates, and we faire la bise (the famous kiss on each cheek) whenever it is appropriate.  At this point in their lives, the only interesting lesson that the grandchildren are learning is that people look different.  It is far from obvious to me that the level of pigmentation that my skin color has counts as the most vivid example to the grandchildren of human beings looking different. 

Given this moral trajectory, the grandchildren in this family are learning one of the most powerful lessons of equality that anyone could ever hope to learn.  It is a lesson that is being taught simultaneously, and with great majesty, by the parents and the grandparents. 

No one in this family has ever said “Black people are decent, too”.  Doing so would make no sense.  It would be rather like saying “Some people are taller than others”.

Returning to groups once again, there was a time when Jews made an extremely sharp distinction between the Jew and the non-Jew; and made it clear in a multitude of ways that one had to be careful in trusting a non-Jew.  The Holocaust no doubt had something to do with this.

What intrigues me, however, is that to the best of my knowledge Jews have never taught hate.  The thesis that one cannot trust a non-Jew is strikingly different from the thesis that one should hate non-Jews. 

And now for the controversial part of this essay: A striking difference between Jews, one the one hand, and both Arabs, primarily Muslims, and blacks, on the other, is that in recent years both Arabs, primarily Muslims, have espoused hatred with reckless abandon.  Not all Muslim Arabs have; not all blacks have.  But in either case, enough have that we have some measure of a norm in this regard among both Muslim Arabs and blacks. 

Regarding recent attack in the United Kingdom, the New York Times reports that one of the men with whom the British police were struggling was shouting “Allah, Allah”, while throwing punches.  Well, what can I say: If enough Muslim people in authority do this, Muslim children are certainly learning—and in the name of Allah—to hate non-Muslim peoples.  Certainly if enough Muslim people in authority do this, then being hateful counts as a viable alternative for Muslim children even if most Muslims do not teach hate. 

In a like manner, it has become far too common for blacks to think that they are excused, if not entirely justified, in taking out their anger on whites, no matter how innocent the particular white may be.  Again, it is irrelevant that most blacks do not.  For if enough blacks behave in this way, then being hateful towards whites is seen as a viable alternative among blacks.

Of course, there is still the KKK in the United States.  But real issue is whether most white children see the KKK as a viable alternative.  It does not seem so.

There was, to be sure, a time when the KKK could, with some plausibility, claim to speak for the “white race”, if only because it could be reasonably said that, at the very least, the KKK expressed sentiments that most whites held.  There is simply no evidence whatsoever that this is so nowadays.

Let me put the point another way.  For the typical white child nowadays, the KKK does not stand as an authoritative figure.  Not even the Grand Dragon.  Why nowadays the typical white child in the United States is much more likely to know who the black rapper Puff Daddy is, and want to emulate him. 

This essay is not about excusing wrongful behavior on the part of any group, including those whites who put the three nooses on the tree in the so-called Jena 6 case in Louisiana. 

Rather, the issue is about what children might see as a viable alternative as they grow up.  For any given white child randomly chosen, it is much more likely that Puff Daddy is; whereas the Grand Dragon of the KKK is not even a remote possibility.  It is this truth that I am pointing to.  This is because the contrast is striking. 

For any number of black and Muslim children, hatred is being seen as a viable alternative—a choice that garners some measure of significant respectability among authority figures. 

It suffices that these figures do not disapprove.  For make no mistake about, there many ways to give one’s approval; and as we all know: One of them consists in not expressing one’s disapproval.  Just as “bad” can mean “good”, depending on how the word “bad” is uttered, the absence of disapproval invariably means approval, when (a) one is fully aware of what the person is intending to do, (b) one is equally free to approve or disapprove of the person’s behavior, and (c) it is clear that one’s disapproval would incline the person to refrain or at least constitute a reason to refrain.  Children learn this truth very early on.

It is right, then, to call upon blacks and Muslims to speak out against the violence being perpetrated blacks and Muslims.  Their not doing so is indeed producing a deafening silence precisely because the silence is an unequivocal form of approval. 

If these remarks are sound, then the cycle of hatred is being perpetuated, not by whites, but by those who continually talk about having been the victim of egregious wrongdoing by whites, namely blacks and Muslims.  Most poignantly, those who complain about racism the most are also the ones who are perpetuating hatred the most.  Jews are the striking exception in this regard, in that perpetuationg hatred is not in any way whatsoever an aspect of the Jewish tradition.