"You People" — A Badge of Honor

"Globalization, one world, homogenization and all of that other unifying rhetorical crap is sometimes just that. I value my culture now more than ever."

By Barry Kluger

When we moved to Scottsdale in 1999, we had our home tiled. And with 80 percent of it done, the installers threw up their hands and said "Hey! We thought we could finish the job according to your specs but we can't. Sorry, man."

We were up the Hayden Rhodes Aqueduct without a paddle. We told the owner of the store that we would sue for damages. He said, "You people!" Did he mean New Yorkers or Scottsdalians?

Fast forward to August 2003, on a trip to Europe for my 50th birthday. While in Venice, I stopped to buy a battery for my digital camera and was shocked at the exorbitant price. I told the salesperson he was charging 50 percent more than the usual price, and he said take it or leave it, in broken English. As I took it, he muttered "You people." Did he mean Americans?

Barry Kluger cruises the canals of Venice, circa 2003, pondering humanity.

Ten years ago, while sitting at First Watch restaurant with some business associates, I stuck to my Weight Watchers regimen and special ordered a dish to my own specifications, which sounded like the restaurant scene out of the movie Five Easy Pieces. My friend across the table, marveling at my demands, shook his head and said: "You people." Did he mean the weight-conscious? 

And just this week, I was talking to an acquaintance who was talking about his cruise to Australia. He said he didn’t really didn’t want to go but his wife was complaining and pushing her opinions. Then he threw in: “AND SHE’S NOT EVEN JEWISH!”

And it became crystal clear: As the famous comic book character Pogo might say: "We have met the you’s and they are us."

People who "you people-ize" others are usually lashing out because they belong to no group, no society and no culture. Sometimes the "you people" are our professions, our habits, our regimens. But too often, they are our faith and our cultures.

The war in Israel against Hamas has led to a rise of anti-Semitism, among other things, and the advent of free speech has spawned free hate. It's freedom to persecute without any fear of prosecution or consequences.

During that trip two decades ago in Venice, we attended a lunch with people of the same faith from all over the world, and if one accuses a people of being clannish, then we all owe our survival to our clannishness. It is not often that diverse nationalities have a common thread. Religion and culture are quite often separators – but can just as much be unifiers.

When we returned to the ship and told people what we had experienced, one of the guests said, "Wow, you people stick together," and this time I knew what he meant: Jews.

For those two hours over a luncheon table, I didn't know or care about the difference between a Johannesburg and a Feinberg. Yet someone chose — in his own hateful way — to make the distinction. But it only made me swell with pride.

Globalization, one world, homogenization and all of that other unifying rhetorical crap is sometimes just that. Crap. Contrary to the all-star rocker hit song from the 80s, “we” are not “the world” and getting along is not a substitute for celebrating our uniqueness.

While we should never lose sight of that which brings us together, we should also make an effort to embrace the differences that set us apart. It’s actually pretty easy.

So am I an isolationist apologist when I bask in the fact that I am different from you? I am not like everyone else, and I don't think any of us should be lulled into the notion that we are all from the family of man.

While the other side of the world is being Euro-sized into a single currency for business reasons, is a single culture the next step? I, for one, miss the Italian lire, the German Deutsche Mark, the French franc. OK, maybe not the French franc.

Yet a New World Order is now eager to enforce the borders and standardize our cultures? Since the dawn of time, leaders wanted to create a society where one culture was good, the other was bad, and it looks like many of our politicians are following the lesson plan. But today people in Paris are speaking French instead of German because good people refused to allow one culture to triumph over the other.

All these experiences have opened my eyes. I value my culture now more than ever and I will not bristle when someone says, "you people." I will wear it as a badge of honor, and I suggest that all of us do the same, whether you are Croat, Serb, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Greek, Lebanese, Sikh, Italian, Turkish, Irish, LGBTQ+, etc.

What we encounter in Scottsdale, we can encounter anywhere in the world. But if any of us lose sight of who we are or where we came from, we lose a lot more.

I gather together my experiences and revel in the fact that I am a New Yorker, an American, a Weight Watcher, a Scottsdalian and a Jew.

So the next time someone says, "you people are all alike," I'm going to tell them that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day.

Barry Kluger is a veteran Senior Corporate Communications Executive at MTV Networks and the Author of the Klugertown: Boom-bastic column on Substack.

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