Logs:Hachnasat Orchim

Hachnasat Orchim
Dramatis Personae Alma, Shane
In Absentia	2020-11-14 "...it's not that simple."
Location Anshe Emes - Detroit
It's brisk and bright, and Shane's huge eyes squint shut against the morning light as he steps back out into the sun, pulling his slim black peacoat snugly closed over his elegantly tailored grey suit. It's a small synagogue side entrance, here; the heavy front doors at the top of the wide front steps are closed, right now, though a small trickle of latecomers are still drifting in to service through the smaller entrance. Shane is ignoring the furtive wide-eyed looks he gets from the stragglers, buttoning up his jacket and tucking his hands into his pockets. "You could stay," he offers, mild. Alma trails Shane by a step, still tugging on her own black coat over a sharp black suit, the cut ever so slightly more feminine than her usual work attire. Her kippah is also plain black velvet, today, and she wears low, chunky black heels. The anger that ripples over her face is fleeting, and she looks calm and neutral again by the time she answers him. "Don't think I want to celebrate with folks who don't hold to hachnasat orchim." Her voice is very flat. "Or who sit so comfortably with their bigotry. I'm sorry." Shane snorts, his ridged brow hiking upward as he saunters down the small walkway toward the actual sidewalk. "Is it better if they have the grace to be awkward about their bigotry? Some ways, I'd rather people be up front about it than some of the runaround I get." Alma doesn't answer at once, her brows furrowing lightly. "I don't know that there's any absolute better or worse about that. But I guess in the end I prefer it straightforward, too." Her head dips. "Even if the idea that it at least makes them uncomfortable, too has a certain appeal. Also gives me this -- probably false hope that they might be ready to receive tochecha." "Might be." Shane's shrug is a very small thing. "But I come here for prayer and community, not to educate people. Feel like the odds of that conversation happening at any one of the places we've been this fall are --" His cheeks puff with the small raspberry he blows. "Like what are we gonna do, email every place we been saying please don't be bigots just in case we come back in two years? Doubt there's a line of other Jewish freaks in most of these cities looking to make a fuss." Again Alma considers this for a few beats before answering. "Probably not. And anyway, it's only likely to have an impact coming from people whose opinions they care about." She glances aside at Shane. "I feel like," this is a bit reluctant, "we don't make as much of a fuss about that back home as we really should, either." "Definitely has more sway coming from people in the community." Shane's inner eyelids blink closed, his eyes fixed ahead and not on Alma. "Here and home, too. Not like you don't have your plate full with your own share of bullshit there, too, though." "I can't really say how comparable it is, but I do feel like..." Alma draws a deep breath. "I don't let white Jews off the hook for tolerating racism in our community just because they have their plates full with antisemitism. Maybe shouldn't be too quick to let myself off the hook for anti-mutant bigotry, either." She tugs fastidiously at the cuffs of her suit jacket beneath her coat. "Though I guess it's different, since I was excusing myself more on the grounds of -- being a mutant. But obviously..." She tips her head back in the direction of the synagogue they're leaving behind. "...it's not that simple." "I am not looking to make a fuss on the road, either. Like the last thing we need is some assholes calling the cops because a demon and an Angry Black Woman asked them politely not to be bigots and shiiit this tour has enough media fuckery." A smile splits Shane's face, bright and toothy. "But I wouldn't say no to more of a fuss back home." Alma nods. "Fair enough. If you wanted a fuss raised, it might be a different story, but here? Yeah. It would be a lot of work for probable little gain." She glances aside at Shane again, her answering smile small but sincere. "But, back home? I'm in school to be loud Jewishly. May as well start putting that to work."