Imagine that Hitler won World War 2. Imagine that he conquered America killing and imprisoning millions. The rest of our nation’s population would be reduced to slavery building his monuments and buildings. Eventually, when Hitler died, imagine his much kinder son taking over.
Hitler’s son would eventually free us from slavery and stop the wholesale slaughter, but because he loved his father, Hitler’s son would not want to hear the truth about German atrocities. When he told the history of his father’s building of America, he would leave out the part about American unpaid labor or stolen lands, and thus make Germans out to be the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. When anyone asked for a fairer distribution of wealth, or even for protections for American workers, Hitler’s son would speak of “free markets” which would render his unfairness invisible.
Hitler’s son would not want to hear about the holocaust, but he he might start a sports team called “The Jews” and invite rich Germans to come cheer with game Yarmulkes and waving team Menorahs. Or, after Christianity had been vanquished, he might have a team called the “Martyrs” and let Germans come and wave their game crucifixes.
The son of Hitler would make movies about how the kindly Germans freed the slaves and a movie about an American Butler who inspired noble German leaders to show mercy on the poor little Americans. He might make a movie about a brave German cowboy and his faithful American sidekick, played of course by a German.
After the slaves were freed, German prisons would begin to fill with Americans, which Hitler’s son would see as further proof that Americans need German mentoring. The son of Hitler would believe that as long as he is nice to Americans as individuals there is no need to be fair to them as a group. He would see resentment of Americans against German discrimination as reverse discrimination and just as bad as the German oppression itself.
Finally, imagine the son of Hitler rewriting history to say his father discovered America, thus making the pain of your mothers and fathers forever invisible. If you lived in that America, how would you feel? What would you would you want to do to the son of Hitler?
Jim, what a great parable. I would also mention the boarding schools that all Indian children were not only forced to attend but to live in as well. They weren’t allowed to speak their languages even outside the classroom, practice their religious rituals, or wear any form of Indian clothing, hairstyle, or accessory. Even today, Indian children are removed from their families by the child welfare system to a far greater extent than other children are.
Keep writing these parables, because they hit home and wake people up to what’s happening beyond their cultural blinders.
Thank you, Mary.