Michael Maliner: Can you spot the mestizo in the mix?
Michael Maliner: "You’re Jewish and American" my father would tell me, meaning that I was no different than any other kid in my grade school. Technically he had a case: my mother is a naturalized America citizen who converted to Judaism [albeit after I was born and presumably to put herself in the good graces of my distraught Jewish grandmother]. Still, my father’s wish was for me to play the part of the American Jew – to be just just like him – to be just like them.
We couldn’t play the American Jew because we didn’t look the part. Our neighbors assumed my mother was the family maid when we moved into our suburban white house. When they learned that she was a medical doctor, it didn’t matter: she was still less-than-white. Tucked away in the closet as he was, there wasn’t anything my father could do about it. That’s when I learned the meaning of the word "race."
