I ran into a friend of mine today who was telling me about a wedding today between two black Jews that I don't know and first off, I wish a mazel tov to the hearty couple.
Anyhow, the conversation changed and my Askenazic white Jewish friend was telling me some of the things she has heard that many of the black Jewish girls go through. It was a little ironic because I had been asked by someone recently if a black Jewish girl was a convert or what her story was. The friend I saw today was telling me that the black Jewish girls she knows are quite sick of being asked if they were converts and could they please tell their stories.
I feel a little bad, but I felt relieved, simply because this means I'm not crazy. This reinforces what I say that people can really have no tact and ask questions that are out of line. I urge my readers to teach their children not to do this. I urge the community members to do what they can to destroy this habit.
Just like it's not so nice to ask if someone's a convert (especially right off the bat), it's obnoxious to assume that a convert knows another convert or a black Jew knows someone because they are also a black Jew. Yes, it might be a little more likely, only because there is an online conversion community and we do know others from there. We also know others from conversion classes. However, this means we generally know someone whose conversion period overlapped with our own since most don't stay long in the online conversion world after they finish their process. As for Jews of Color, they do have a group where they meet up. Though I know a black Jewish girl who has told me that she thinks it's retarded. Apparently, the meetings are a bit of a broken record. So, I can see that people would try out that organization but tire quickly of it. Thus, they would know those who tried the club when they did.
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