I think each of us as individuals must do what we can to fight prejudice. Please don't take the following as bragging, but as examples of what a single person can do. All of this is true.
When I came to Portland from the south side of Chicago (after living one year in Vegas), I ran into culture shock like you couldn't believe. This was 1971. I grew up in an ethnically mixed neighborhood where the main criteria for being liked by the rest of the group was whether or not you were good at sports - period. Here, it was a lot different. The town was pretty much segregated as to housing and schools. I went to work for Montgomery Ward. The following year, I was a department manager and we had an opening in my department (mens clothing) for a salesperson. One of the guys working in the stockroom applied. After interviewing a bunch of people, I made the decision to hire him. I had no idea he would be the first black man to work in a position meeting the public in the entire Ward's Portland district. Notice I don't use "African-American" even though some would say it's PC. I feel that we shouldn't hyphenate "American" and we should always treat all citizens as just "Americans", since they are.
I took a lot of flack from some of the other managers. In fact, I was told by some that my career was over and I would never advance. I couldn't believe this attitude. Of course it turned out that the guy was a terrific salesperson and mostly because of his performance, the color line was broken.
I didn't think I did anything "noble" or "brave" because I was just acting within the cultural behavior with which I had been raised.
In the late 60s, I was in Vegas visiting my grandparents. My grandfather took me to see a movie downtown. When we went in, there was a sign on the doors leading to the main floor that said "White" and a sign on the door leading to the balcony that said "Colored". Growing up in the Chicago area, I had never seen this before. I asked my grandfather about it and he said he was surprised also. We left the theater after getting our money back.
A final note - I had some guys tell me they thought it was strange when I got married that both my best man and the judge were black. I still don't get how some people look at the world that way. Unfortunately, I may be in the minority.
Prejudice sucks.
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Yom HaShoah
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