Turks in Germany and Black-White America

Earlier this week, an educator from Germany visited AJC offices as part of a trip investigating how we handle difference, given our country's long experience. She spoke of a very difficult situation in which the substantial Turkish population in Germany faces downward mobility: third generation Turks actually are often doing worse than their parents.__Her concern was that opportunities to address difference and to learn about the "other" were ignored. The example: 90% of day care programs in S. Germany are under church control, while 90% of the kids who go there are not Christian (usually Muslim). But ALL the teachers are Christian, and in general none have training in cross cultural understanding. Differences are simply ignored.__On a leadership level, there are few Turks in prominent positions who can be role models, and stereotypes that we would clearly label prejudice here, are far more widely tolerated.__We left the room feeling like the U.S., with all its problems, was still way ahead. I was tickled by the thought that my 3-year-old's learning about Chanukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa was the first stage of enlightenment; and embattled concepts like political correctness seemed ingenious ways to deal with disparity.__Obama's speech on race, however -- the most serious contribution to the discussion in a long time and held on the very same day, reminds us that we would be very wrong to rest on our laurels. But what exactly are the steps we need to take now?