Study Abroad Series 3

Study Abroad Series 3: Anti-Semitism

Cultural sensitivity is wildly different in other countries than it is in the United States. That phrase something I had been told many different times but didn’t really understand what it meant until my literature professor in Spain stood in front of me, pointed at me, and told me that Nazi’s think of Jewish people as rats. In the states that is something that a professor could be fired for saying, because it seems way out of line.

Telling me that Nazis think I’m a rat because I’m Jewish fucking hurts, because I know there are people who think that. I’ve been told to die by people who think that. I’ve been spit at, threatened, and felt very real life implications of that statement. Does that make it okay for me to feel offended? He doesn’t think I’m a rat, does he? My first reaction was to look anywhere but him, because he continued standing in front of me and pointing at me for a few minutes as he explained how the literary movement of the time connected with that sentiment. I wanted to cry as all of the experiences of people hating me for my religion came flooding to my head. After class I remembered the differences in cultural sensitivity and I realized I had to really look at the situation from above and try to not feel hurt by it. I had to ask myself: Am I being too sensitive about this? Is this a cultural difference in bluntness and what is considered appropriate?

In order to look at the situation as a cultural learning experience, I talked with the program coordinator, Ibon, about the situation. I told him that I felt hurt by it, but that if it was only a cultural distinction I didn’t want to spend energy being upset by it. Ibon assured me there was probably a cultural barrier, and that he knew the professor would never have meant to hurt me and that if I talked to him that he would apologize and hear me out. I realized then what people really meant by cultural sensitivity being different in other countries, but I never really figured out how I feel about that distinction. I decided not to be upset by what he said, but I wanted to really think analytically about it.

Months later, I was hiking with my friend in San Sebastian on a mountain called Mount Urgull, used as a military fort and castle since the middle ages. On one of the very old buildings there was graffiti of a swastika with the words “Hitler tenia razon” (“Hitler was right” in Spanish). I was gutted when I saw this, because other than what my professor had said, I had not experienced direct antisemitism the whole semester. I didn’t really know what to do, so I stuck it in the pile of “anti-semitic things I’ve seen in my life” and had a great day despite it.

And the thing is, there aren’t Jewish people here to really ask about anti semitism. There was one other Jewish person in the whole program, but she considered herself Jew “ish”, in that she didn’t really experience the religion of Judaism in a traditional way, rather the emerging version of “cultural Judaism”. So I was on my own being Jewish for four months, in a place without enough Jewish people to even have one synagogue in the whole city.

There aren’t even really minorities here to ask about microaggressions like this, because Spain is a fairly homogeneous place. They say they don’t have issues with racism, but the reality is that they don’t protect minorities because there aren’t any minorities. They are so few in numbers it’s pretty clear to see the faults in their system of protection, especially in the northern areas, further away from the sea where immigrants come from Africa (mostly Morocco). So in a country of almost all white people, in a city where the only religion is Catholicism, where they call anyone from Asia “chino” and still call people gypsies, and the only queer people were white gay men, and the sentiment on immigrants is that they are relying on resources from the government rather than getting jobs, but if a woman is assaulted the man is taken to court and put away, but if it’s not the right sentence or long enough there are weeks of protests, and the lack of money for old people’s pensions causes a weekly protest, where is the diversity? How am I supposed to see both sides of feeling oppressed in the society if there is only one visible side?

I think this is a great paradox in Spain, and possibly other countries of Europe. They look to the United States as a racially charged and having all these problems, and we do. The power is actively scared of difference. But in Spain, they aren’t scared of difference, (so there is not active laws that take away rights from people) but they don’t acknowledge it either, and it doesn’t really exist.

Is the lack of cultural sensitivity something the United States should learn from and adapt to? Is it better to have less? Do minorities here not feel hurt when things like this happen? Does it make for less minorities feeling offended? Or is it something so fundamentally ingrained in our cultures that it wouldn’t be possible to change - and would we even want to? Is it better to recognize differences, call them out and demand acceptance, or is it better to sweep differences under the rug and pretend they receive the same services and that the population doesn’t feel biased towards them, even through comments that show otherwise?

I don’t really know the answer to these questions. I don’t know if its better or worse to be less culturally sensitive. It certainly doesn't get rid of the antisemitism or racism and it certainly doesn’t make me feel more included. I don’t think any place is lacking in racism, either. And I certainly don’t think denying it because the population is small or nonexistent doesn’t really count, because the country was clearly racially charged but not admitting it. I don’t know if the lack of denial in the states means we are closer or further away from a more equitable society. It might be that the United States is just louder about it, and that could be another cultural distinction.