Chicago Is the Most Segregated City

Who would have thought that Chicago is the most segregated city in the US?  Blacks moved North to get away from segregation in the South.  Apparently going to Chicago did not help much.  Neither did going to Detroit, which more or less ceased to be a major American city after the black migration there.  It degenerated into a giant, poverty-stricken slum.  Whites in Chicago may be afraid that they will follow Detroit down the drain.  

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/social-mobility-memos/posts/2015/12/21-chicago-race-inequality-reeves

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/end-segregated-century-racial-separation-americas-neighborhoods-1890-2010-5848.html

Why Is Trump Trying to Speak Yiddish?

Trump’s controversial use of the word “schlonged” in referring to Hillary’s 2008 campaign has been all over the news.  For me it raised the question of what is Trump’s connection to the Jewish community, since schlonged is apparently a corruption of the Yiddish word schlong.  What is Trump doing speaking Yiddish, even if he has the word wrong? 

I worry about Trump’s Jewish connections because the general image of Jews is as heartless, greedy, misers, often in the real estate business like Trump.  They appear to have no compunction about putting tenants who are behind in their rent out in the snow to freeze.  In their view, if the stupid, gullible Christians want to help them, so be it, but the Jews can watch them freeze to death and be content that they have complied with the law.  That’s probably one reason why Trump has done real estate business with Jews like the Kushners, so that they can do his dirty work. 

Of course Jews give lots of money to charities, but usually to Jewish charities, and usually not so much that it hurts their bottom line.  It is often to places like universities or hospitals that will put the donor’s name on a very public building to enhance his reputation. 

Interestingly, both Donald Trump’s daughter and Hillary Clinton’s daughter married Jews.  Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, has converted to Judaism, so that Donald’s grandchildren are definitely Jewish.  As far as I know, Chelsey Clinton has not converted to Judaism, so that it is less clear if Hillary’s granddaughter is Jewish, since Jews usually make the status of the mother, not the father, the deciding factor for the ethnicity of the child.  In any case, I would guess that both grandchildren have the right to be issued Israeli passports if they want them. 

Also interestingly, the fathers-in-law of both Ivanka and Chelsey are convicted felons for various types of financial crimes.  Ivanka’s father-in-law, the real estate mogul Charles Kushner, was convicted of tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering.  Chelsey’s father-in-law, politician Edward Mezvinsky, pled guilty to 31 felony charges of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud amounting to about $10 million. 

The characteristics of greediness and heartlessness often attributed to Jews are not solely theirs.  Charles Dickens’ Scrooge is presumably not Jewish, but has many of the same characteristics, which are highlighted by the story “A Christmas Carol” at this time of the year.  Nor does Mr. Potter, the mean banker in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” appear to be Jewish, although he has many of the same traits. 

So, maybe the problem is that Jews seem attracted to the real estate and banking professions, two that are often associated in popular mythology with cruel, heartless, greedy people, no matter what their ethnicity or religion.  Of course, Trump is also a real estate mogul, whose schoolyard bullying tactics in the Republican debates may illustrate that he has some of these same traits, despite being a Presbyterian.  I just didn’t start thinking about it until he started trying to speak Yiddish.