Dear Kathy,
After much thought and consideration I do not think that our relationship can continue. Although we both believe that the notion of antisemitism is wrong, you and I are fundamentally different. I am a fighter that is willing to jeopardize my own reputation in order to combat what I believe is immoral. This issue of anti-semitism is perpetuated because the elite and the "kind" people watch as anti-semitic acts are committed. Even with an action as small as a joke, prejudice is continues to pervade our society. When I had first claimed that I was a Jewish man, you treated me like somebody else. Was I not the same person I was the day before? Your subconscious biases were clearly reflected given how you treated me. It is a reflection of how society has portrayed the Jewish community and you have succumbed to their repulsive ideology. You refused to rent out the cottage to a Jewish family because it would offend our neighbors. This is proof that you care too much about what others think and that you cannot hold to your own moral constitution. When Tommy came home after being called a "kike", your reaction was to state that he was not a Jew. I know that Dave informed me that you have changed, but I believe that this aspect of your identity was ingrained in the way that you were raised and is reflected with the people you associate with. I'm sorry that it had to end this way.
From,
Phil
I think that both Gentlemen's Agreement and Little White Lie represent two separate paths within the Jewish identity through the two main characters. Phil, a Christian, proclaims a Jewish persona in order to prove a point in his own series and Lacey who identified as a Jewish woman, later identifies herself as an African American woman. Both characters arguably put themselves in a more prejudiced identity; Phil one who sympathized with the Jewish community, but was not a Jew and Lacey, an African American woman, who had identified herself as a caucasian given that she was never told her ancestry. I think that these two movies display the change in Jewish identity over time as some would argue that the Jewish community has become part of the "white" identity and has moved away from what we consider to be "outsiders".
After much thought and consideration I do not think that our relationship can continue. Although we both believe that the notion of antisemitism is wrong, you and I are fundamentally different. I am a fighter that is willing to jeopardize my own reputation in order to combat what I believe is immoral. This issue of anti-semitism is perpetuated because the elite and the "kind" people watch as anti-semitic acts are committed. Even with an action as small as a joke, prejudice is continues to pervade our society. When I had first claimed that I was a Jewish man, you treated me like somebody else. Was I not the same person I was the day before? Your subconscious biases were clearly reflected given how you treated me. It is a reflection of how society has portrayed the Jewish community and you have succumbed to their repulsive ideology. You refused to rent out the cottage to a Jewish family because it would offend our neighbors. This is proof that you care too much about what others think and that you cannot hold to your own moral constitution. When Tommy came home after being called a "kike", your reaction was to state that he was not a Jew. I know that Dave informed me that you have changed, but I believe that this aspect of your identity was ingrained in the way that you were raised and is reflected with the people you associate with. I'm sorry that it had to end this way.
From,
Phil
I think that both Gentlemen's Agreement and Little White Lie represent two separate paths within the Jewish identity through the two main characters. Phil, a Christian, proclaims a Jewish persona in order to prove a point in his own series and Lacey who identified as a Jewish woman, later identifies herself as an African American woman. Both characters arguably put themselves in a more prejudiced identity; Phil one who sympathized with the Jewish community, but was not a Jew and Lacey, an African American woman, who had identified herself as a caucasian given that she was never told her ancestry. I think that these two movies display the change in Jewish identity over time as some would argue that the Jewish community has become part of the "white" identity and has moved away from what we consider to be "outsiders".