Gentlemen's Agreement

Last evening my wife and I watched "Gentlemen's Agreement," 1947, Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and John Garfield. This is a story about a journalist played by Peck who passes himself off as a Jew to write an article about anti-Semitism in the US. He discovers the many faces of discrimination including the passive acceptance of people including his fiancé played by McGuire.

I found the movie to be a powerful reminder that we are all guilty of discrimination if we passively accept it. McGuire relates the story of a man telling an anti-Semitic joke and how the company simply ignored him. Garfield points out that she and the rest of the people present are guilty of passive acceptance by not challenging him.

It is true. If we do not actively challenge those who discriminate, be it about Jews, Moslems, Blacks, Mexicans, or Gays, we are passively accepting discrimination. We are helping to perpetuate this ugly part of our culture. I, for one, will no longer just kill-file or ignore those who perpetuate discrimination in this ng. I won't be complicit. Time to call it for what it is!
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