(Jewish Group) When Inclusion Needs to Be More Inclusive

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

The latter half of January was quite busy, including the Women’s March, the Creating Change Conference for the LGBTQ community and Martin Luther King Day. Martin Luther King Day serves to remind all of us of our humanity and our need to see ourselves as equal and cherished members of this large family of beings created by God who are to ensure the well-being of each other.

Through his life, King advocated and fought for this basic notion of equality, due to its absence for too many Americans. In the 1968 Campaign for the Poor, King was asked about the Native American poor; could they join the blacks who were marching? Absolutely. What about the Hispanic poor? Yes. What about the white poor? Why not? He wanted all those who shared this concern to march for and with each other. In marching for inclusion, he wanted inclusiveness. That makes sense, right?

Our foundational Jewish teachings often remind us about the power of our words and actions towards and for each other, and our need to be compassionate and empathic towards others and to work towards being as inclusive as possible. King adjured us to use our words appropriately, to join hands in nonviolent resistance, so we would not end up with physical violence and destroy that which we very much would hope to build. We often have occasion to remind ourselves and others that we are all equal and deserving of the most basic rights of inclusion and validation.

So what went so horribly wrong a few weeks ago? Commentary after commentary reports how this year’s Women’s March brought about disunity and discord. In some cases, local Marches actually had to be cancelled or scaled back due to threats and concern for the safety and wellbeing of attendees. Too many people wrote about why they would not attend, how they had to leave and why they would not go back. Some women, instead of focusing on their shared humanity, chose to use this very vehicle to discredit the humanity of others, turning what was to be an experience of solidarity into a political shout out and a podium for prejudiced views and words of hate reflecting exclusion, maligning entire populations and groups.

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