Madness, absolute madness.
These are the words that came to my mind when reading the first chapter of Henry Goldschmidt’s “Race and Religion Among the Chosen Peoples of Crown Heights”, appropriately titled “Collisions”.
In the introduction and chapter 1 of his work, Goldschmidt lays out for us not only the story of a collision between an automobile and two young children riding bicycles, but also the story of a “social” collision between two different peoples living in the same community. Goldschmidt, unlike a news reporter, does not give us one solid account of the tragic accident that took seven-year-old Gavin Cato’s life in August 1991. Instead, he lays out for us three different accounts of the accident. He gives us an account from his own perspective, which even he admits is slightly biased, he gives us an account from the perspective of the Black community of Crown Heights, and another account from the perspective of the Hasidic Jewish community of Crown Heights. The fact that the author has to provide three different accounts just to explain one event goes to show just how blinding anger, resentment, and feelings of injustice can be. It goes to show that a numerous amount of people can witness the same event and, in a sense, not witness the same event at all. This can happen when the event gets filtered through the people’s private anger and resentment. For example, the Blacks did not see a car slam into a Jewish driver’s car, causing him to lose control and crash into two children. Instead, they saw a Jewish driver neglect the law and drive through a red light, without any care for those who could be hurt, just like “the ghost of a slavemaster” who didn’t care who he trampled when he came in through the gates riding his horses. The Jews, likewise, did not see the injured Jewish driver receiving preferential treatment when he was escorted from the scene of the accident. They saw a man, surrounded by a mob of angry people, in fear for his life. They saw a man being taken away before he became seriously injured.
This is the power of resentment, injustice, and anger. These elements are so strong that they blind people. They blind people to the truth and to each other. This occurs to such a profound extent, that these elements ultimately keep people from being able to mourn a tragedy. Ultimately, they keep people from living in harmony with one another.
It’s just madness, absolute madness.
