Jews and blacks

Back when blacks were Negroes, the ones that made it into college found that their only friends were Jews. I lived in that era.

When the anti-white anti-Semitic Black Muslims came along, that pattern of Jew-Negro friendship slowly disappeared. Roughly in the mid-1960s.

It is generally surmised that Jews of my era befriended Negroes because Jews had an outcast sensibility that helped them identify with the Negro underdogs.

I suspect another phenomenon. I would like to suggest that one of the qualities that Jews have, that prepares them for success in the commercial and technical world is a strong personal identity. Many more Jews know who they are than comparable non-Jews.

The consequence of knowing who you are, is that you can associate with other people you like, without regard to social pressure deciding for you who to associate with.

That is my explanation of the Jew-Negro association that was only destroyed by a perceived change in Negro (by then called Black) attitudes.

I chose my Negro friends because they were particularly interesting not out of guilt or sympathy.