For ethnic and religious minorities, American culture hasn't always been welcoming.

Earlier this month, they got a painful reminder when they turned on the televisions to see Klansmen and neo-Nazis marching in a torch-lit parade and chanting anti-Semitic slogans. Eventually one of their number ran his car into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing one.

"I immediately thought about the 240 Holocaust survivors that we serve," June Gutterman, CEO of Jewish Family Services of Columbus, said Friday. "I found myself asking, 'What year is this?'"

Gutterman was participating in a roundtable at the Columbus Urban League. It was called by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to discuss how best to prevent another Charlottesville and other acts of domestic terror.

Brown said President Donald Trump's lack of leadership in the wake of the deadly demonstrations only adds to the problem.

"I think that this is the first president that we've seen do the dog whistle — the wink and a nod — to Nazis and anti-Semites and some of the white supremacists," Brown said.

Trump's statements shifted from condemning the hate groups, to equivocating about them and back, Brown said. But former Ku Klux Klansman Grand Wizard David Duke was consistent in his praise for the president.

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"That tells me everything," Brown said.

For the roundtable panelists, the recent events come against a backdrop of existing worries.

Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce, who is black, said that how to deal with police is a common topic of conversation with his teenage sons.

Gordon Hecker, outgoing CEO of the Jewish Federation of Columbus, said Jewish congregations in the city commonly receive threats and hire armed guards when they have services.

"We're scared," Hecker said.

As the panel discussed how to counteract hate groups, some said teaching an accurate version of history is important.

For example, slavery existed in North America for more than 300 years, followed by another 99 years of Jim Crow, so blacks have been subjected to official oppression for all but a tiny slice of their history on the continent, said Dr. Art James, interim executive director of Ohio State's Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

"Our country doesn't own up to the onerous circumstances of our history," James said.

And monuments honoring Confederate figures such as Robert E. Lee amount to a mis-remembrance of American history, said Brown, who supports removing all Confederation monuments in the U.S. Capitol.

"He went to West Point, he took an oath to America and then led a rebellion against it," Brown said, explaining that such actions were anything but honorable.

mschladen@dispatch.com

@martyschladen

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