{"id":820,"date":"2017-01-30T15:55:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T19:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2017-01-30T15:55:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T19:55:53","slug":"invisible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=820","title":{"rendered":"INVISIBLE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am fair skinned, with blue eyes and curly hair. I live in a city of 50,000 in a predominately rural area of Southern Minnesota. \u00a0Few Jews live here, maybe 10 or 15. \u00a0Even so, there are lots of opinions about us. \u00a0Here are two snapshots.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0At a community meeting, thirty-five people sat around on coaches and chairs in the lounge of a one-story office building. \u00a0A respected businessman mentioned the seed company, a few blocks away that had recently burned down. \u00a0He ends his sentence with \u201cJewish torch.\u201d I snapped to attention. \u00a0At the end of the meeting I asked what he meant by \u201cJewish torch.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \u201cWell, you know, it\u2019s when Jews burn down a company to get the insurance money.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u201cI am surprised to hear you speak like this.\u201d For a flickering second, there was understanding in his eyes. \u00a0Then quickly regaining composure he said: \u201cEveryone around here says this.\u201d \u00a0\u201cThat doesn\u2019t make it right. I hope the next time you hear someone say this, you tell them it is not okay.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u00a0When Somali families began moving to Mankato, a couple hundred professionals attended a presentation entitled: \u201cGet to know your Muslim neighbors.\u201d \u00a0I learned new things from the articulate Muslim speaker. \u00a0I was stunned when in response to a question about peace, he immediately replied: \u201cIf there weren\u2019t Jews in the world, there would be peace.\u201d \u00a0After this comment, there was not even an uncomfortable silence. \u00a0I felt invisible.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      At the end of the presentation, I approached the speaker, repeated his comment and calmly asked him to tell me more about this. \u00a0He looked at me: \u201cOh, you must be Jewish,\u201d and started to make small talk, about Minnesota weather. \u00a0If he could have been more honest or reflective about his feelings, we might both have learned something. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      While we are all different in how we look, think, and respond to things; we are not a binary \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem.\u201d \u00a0There is just \u201cus.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Copyright Marilyn (Mira) Frank<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \u00a0   I am fair skinned, with blue eyes and curly hair. I live in a city of 50,000 in a predominately rural area of Southern Minnesota. \u00a0Few Jews live here, maybe 10 or 15. \u00a0Even so, there are lots of opinions about us. \u00a0Here are two snapshots.   \u00a0At …<\/p>\n

      Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[120,121],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resistance-2017","tag-jews","tag-stereotypes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}