He says it was his cultural heritage to dislike Jews because he and all of his peers were taught that Jews were ‘Christ killers.’ He was not so much directly taught to berate them, just that they were bad. He and his friends then kept taunting Jews, because they were supposed to. They were supposed to hate them and make them feel badly, because they were bad people, according to how they were raised.
This also relates to his hatred of inequality with white people. White boys always taunt Richard and his friends because they are black. Berating Jews was a way to make sure that someone was beneath them. If they couldn’t be as good as white people, they were going to make sure they were better than Jews. Socially and as a human, you want to be better than some other group. No one wants to be at the bottom socially.
The reason that disliking Jews was his ‘cultural heritage’ rather than just something he was taught is that he was never told to hate them, he just knew. It was almost instinctual to want to be better than them, and to make sure it happened by publicly showing disapproval of them.
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I am surprised whenever a minority group makes fun of or demeanors another minority group that is struggling with the same problems. However, I understand that it is because one of the groups wants to feel like they are better or higher than the other group somehow. They do not want to feel like they are at the end of the line.
Wright's cultural heritage was implanted in his mind from when he was young. Like you said, he was taught to not like Jews in Church since they called them "Christ killers" and he was taught that white people were not his friends. He also learned this by hearing about it from his family. One of his relatives was killed in a bar and did not have a burial. He also heard a story about how a white man beat a black child who was not his son.
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