Is Skin Color Why Maria Balaban Wants Juliet Steer Exhumed? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Juliet Steer wanted to be buried according to Hebrew traditions in the interfaith area of Ahvath Achim Cemetery in Colchester, Conn., in accordance with Hebrew traditions, CBS reports. Steer, a black Christian, got her wish after dying of lymphoma. Her brother, Paul Steer, is being sued with the goal of exhuming his sister and moving her body out of the cemetery.

Maria Balaban is a 72-year-old cemetery board member, according to the Associated Press. Balaban was present when the board voted to allow non-Jewish people to be interred in the interfaith section of the cemetery. A countersuit filed by Balaban's congregation is accusing her of working to be rid of Ms. Steer because of her skin color rather than over religious grounds.

If that's the case what we may have here is a good, old-fashioned case of a bitter, old racist reacting as if the skin color of a corpse will somehow filter through the ground and infect the bodies of lily-white-skinned Jews in nearby plots. The very idea of digging up Steer's body because she is black is shocking to me, particularly when it comes from a member of a religious body so familiar with being on the receiving end of discrimination.

Balaban's lawyer states his client is not a racist, but Steer's brother Paul disagrees, according to CNN. He claims Balaban stated, "If she was buried at the back of the cemetery she would accept it more," and added, "Only a racist would say something like that."

Such a phrase is frighteningly close to pre-civil rights era admonitions to people of color ordering them to sit at the back of the bus. I think Rosa Parks would turn in her grave like a top spun by a teenager hopped up on crystal meth if she heard about this.

While I don't understand most religious motivations I do understand that the rules of the cemetery should be respected. If those rules allow for the burial of non-Jews than Balaban should take her objections and bury them while issuing a vow never to exhume them.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120117/cm_ac/10847533_is_skin_color_why_maria_balaban_wants_juliet_steer_exhumed

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