"That is racist, sir! We are all the same! I have the same blood you do! You know that? I have the same blood you do! I just wanted to look at the jewelry in your shop!" the ostensibly American Black woman said loudly. She and her mother were cruise ship passengers strolling Skala and apparently having som difficulty with the owner of the small jewelry shop by Pantellis Restaurant. The owner was unrepentant and the woman incensed. The Pantellis servers and pretty much everyone along that little "road" were now watching like a car-crash was about to take place in slow motion. Nothing really bad had happened….yet….
I happened to be heading down that path at the right or wrong time depending on how you look at it. A part of me wanted to help – she seemed like a nice woman who I'm guessing was treated rudely and I know some of the people there. At the same time, the temperature seemed to be coming up, not down. The woman had made her point strongly and well – and clearly, nothing she said was going to elicit an apology or change of heart of the older man who ran the shop. But she kept going, largely repeating herself angrily. I noticed that once she hit a couple of repetitions, the crowd's mood changed. The Pantellis staff was clearly the jury in the situation – their faces and vibe going from "wronged tourist" to "possible crazy lady who's a potential threat".
The chances are excellent the woman was in the right. Greece is a homogenous country and Patmos a particularly homogenous island where even immigrants of 15+ years like my friend Mohammad from Egypt are accepted with some reservations. Prokopis The Hardware Store Owner mocks the way Mohammad talks when he takes a call from his wife or whoever is calling him in Arabic. He likes Mohammad, don't get me wrong, but apparently the sounds of English and Greek are more dignified?
In the 1950's when many Greeks emigrated in search of economic stability, not everyone got into "The Great White Countries," as Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore referred to the circle of powerful Anglo-nations: Britain, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. At the time, there were significant opportunities in the Belgian Congo and Greeks willing to do some physical and moral dirty work could make nice wages in one of the most inhumane colonies ever established. Over the years, I've met a couple of older folk who lived and worked in the Congo when they were young. One told me how surprised he was to learn that Black people were smart and capable. He had been raised to think Black people were some kind of inferior beings. To his credit, he was at least open to learning in a place that itself was so incredibly racist.
All this to say I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find some deep-seated racism in Greek society. Therefore, I wasn't doubting the American cruise-passenger's experience. I doubt she changed any hearts or minds in that situation – but maybe that's not the point. She was angry because she was treated badly – maybe that's all there is to it. I saw she and her mom regrouping and taking a breather in the town square a little later, clearly coming down off the adrenaline.
I have a good friend who is Carribean-American and presents Black (although most of his genetic composition is Portuguese and Mexican). He spent some time in Greece last year and I asked him how he found himself treated. He said by and large, he was treated well. However, he has a cousin – lighter than himself – who married Greek and her family had great difficulty accepting him. So what does that say about Greece? I don't know. You could just as easily tell that story in America. Mostly people treat you well, but there's a story about a family that is more racist than others. Or "it's fine to be different as long as you don't marry my daughter." That happens too.
The number of Black tourists by volume is surprisingly low. So much so that I'll immediately notice for the rarity. Most of the time they're Americans from a cruise. I did see one Black Italian tourist at the beach yesterday which is rare. Patmos is a small island that isn't on the same kind of tourist trail as Santorini, Mykonos or Crete, so it's hard to know if anything I see is representative of anything – but I have wondered why I see relatively few people of color amount even the cruise passengers in a country that seems to be one of the year's global hotspot tourism destinations.
There are definitely more Asian cruise passengers: some Asian-American, some Chinese or Taiwanese, some Japanese. The few Filipinos I've seen are usually cruise-ship staff on shore leave, often running into the grocery store and pharmacy. I haven't noticed anywhere near the same proportion among tourists staying on the island – and when I do, they're almost always American or Canadian. I saw a large family of Indians – though I'm not sure if they actually resided in India or another country, like the United States.
Interestingly, there's only one Asian restaurant on Patmos – Sushi Mostra, a section of Cafe Mostra that turns into fine dining sushi in the evening run exclusively by Greeks. I've never tried it – although I think Emily did once. It's some pricey sushi and I'm sort of a believer in going with the specialty of the house. The only sushi place on a Greek island with no one Asian involved just doesn't feel right – like the time Emily got sushi in Mumbai. I wasn't eating anything raw there.
It's hard to know someone else's experience. I've seen Japanese and Chinese tourists treated very politely by store-owners. I've certainly never seen anything else like the jewelry store incident. Then again, how many people are going to create waves?
One minority population has clearly increased presence on Patmos compared to prior visits: the LGBTQIA+ community. Although from what I see, really mostly the L, G and maybe B (I don't ask). I've noticed numerous British, French, Greek and Italian same-sex couples – slightly more male. Since Emily and I first came to Patmos in late August through September 2010, Gay Marriage has become legal throughout most of the first-world and attitudes along with it. It may be that gay and lesbian couples feel more comfortable on the beaches and at the restaurants of Patmos now.
At the risk of fueling a cliche, sometimes there are men I can't tell whether they're gay, or just European. Carrying a large beach bag over their shoulder, wearing a Speedo and button down shirt…. sometimes it's hard to know whether they're gay or just very French. Either way, they don't seem to have a problem with the locals.
Gender dynamics in Greece are also interesting. Certainly Greek woman see as educated and empowered as home. Yet there are also a few noticeable gender lines that don't full make sense to me. For example, servers are predominately men – which holds truer as the price point of the restaurant goes up. Similar to America, cooks and chefs in restaurants are usually men while women more often own the kitchen at home. Humorously, a few of the best, most authentic restaurants on the island have these older male cooks wearing tank top undershirts and an apron. The take occasional smoke breaks on the side of their restaurants and always look exhausted – but are each renowned for their cooking and are referred to as classic – representing the "old ways".
There are two coffee places that deliver espresso drinks throughout the island. Both rely on predominately female employees in-house and male delivery riders. That's how Michaelis and Theologia split duties for the laundry too. All but one beach lounge chair operation are operated by men and of the three I know with wait-service, all the servers are male. At Petra, the entire family runs the operation, but mom never runs around in the sun – her adult sons do.
I have yet to see a car or motorcycle rental operation run by women and on ferries porters are always men, while women have behind-the-counter jobs. While retail tends to have more female staffing, a lot of women – at least here on Patmos – are owners. In fact, in a couple of cases I know of – such as Stelios' wife – the women are running little empires of multiple shops. Stelios' wife is a boss – and doesn't wear a smile for anyone but customers at her shops, not his gelateria (although she is nice to me on the rare occasions we interact)
Men drive taxis, trucks, captain boats, work at gas stations, perform trades and repair vehicles. Only men work at the two major appliance and electronics shops. Things seem to equal out in the professions where women are architects, lawyers, notaries, nurses, doctors and bankers.
Very noticeably, raising children is a mixed affair with men including grandfathers taking an active part even with very young children.
So what does this say about gender and sexism in Greek culture? I don't know. It feels like there's generally equality with some traditional gender roles still in place – which can probably be said many parts of America too.
What about something close to home – like anti-semitism? It's an interesting question. Greece has very good relations with Israel and is a popular place for Israelis to vacation. Of course that doesn't mean Israelis are always so welcome. I've noticed the cruise ships popular with Israelis no longer come to Patmos. In 2019, I witnessed the havoc that overtook town when Israelis cruise-passengers came ashore and it was heartbreaking. The rudeness, the physical damage, the disrespect for rules and norms – I could understand if it fueled antisemitic sentiment, especially because Israelis are probably the only "clearly marked" Jews Patmians encounter.
Unfortunately I have seen the same thing play out in Thailand and India – which have an Israeli tourist-trail. In Thailand, there are some establishments with "No Israeli" signs and some hotels that charge Israelis more to compensate for the expected damage they do. These Thai businesspeople have good reason for this. There are some very poorly behaved Israeli travelers – particularly the ones who have just been discharged from the military and go traveling to celebrate and blow off steam.
As I think about it, I'm not sure if we every identified ourselves as Jewish – not out of conscious avoidance but simply because it never seemed relevant one way or another. Greeks don't seem to require much adherence to their religion and so the topic really doesn't come up. No one asks anything if I order chicken or vegetarian and not pork. Emily and I did have a Rosh Hashanah on Patmos which we celebrated quite with an apple and baklava (for the honey). There's no synagogue for five islands.
Yet there are synagogues! Eleven of them in fact. How do I know? Because my synagogue – Temple Etz Chaim – is forming a sister-synagogue program with Etz Hayyim Synagogue of Hania, Crete. the Head Rabbi of Greece participated in a call between synagogues and so, I got that fun-fact. Despite once-thriving Jewish communities for thousands of years, Greece was practically depleted of its Jews at the end of the Second World War. In fact, Hitler waited until almost the end, when the tide was turning against him to hurry up and clean out Greece's Jews. It turned out to be fairly easy work because it's hard hide people in small towns on small island.
Rhodes, for example, had a Sefardic Jewish community that established itself after escaping the inquisition and thrived for four hundred years until Hitler's Bulgarian thugs showed up. The Rhodian population was not quick to hand over its Jews. In Rhodes town, neighbors hid neighbors even despite warnings of penalties for those who hid Jews. Unfortunately, the Bulgarian soldiers went door-to-door, raiding every single home, dragging out every single Jew and throwing them on boats. One synagogue remains partially operating on Rhodes today and offers High Holiday services.
Archeological investigation has found Jews living on Crete for more than 2,000 years and they were believed to have been there prior to the fall of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Hania alone had four synagogues in 1944 when the Nazis came. Now, Etz Hayyim synagogue – the one remaining synagogue which was restored in the 1990's – conducts services online for much of the year because the necessary ten Jews it takes to have a service (called a minyan) isn't available in-person during the off-season, although it has enough supporters globally to support it.
When asked about the experience of raising a Jewish family in Hania, one of Etz Hayyim's leaders – who is American – said that her boys felt different. In school, there were classes on the Greek Orthodox religion – and they were asked to sit outside since it wasn't their religion. She didn't describe anything hateful, more insensitive or thoughtless if anything. Her boys weren't targeted, they just weren't fully integrated or included in some ways.
I could imagine if my kids and I lived here year-round something might come up at Christmas and Easter when we don't celebrate (although I was never asked why I didn't join in any of the Easter celebration when I was here in Spring last year).
In the end, Greece is a largely secular society. It's hard to come up with reliable figures, but several studies suggest that while Greeks identify as Greek Orthodox in very high numbers – between 85 and 98 percent of the population depending on whose data you choose – rates of regular participation may be more 29 percent, which younger generations showing very steep declines compared to their parents and grandparents.
The chances are being Jewish isn't particularly of concern one way or the other to the local community.
My feeling is Greece probably isn't terribly more prejudiced than a lot of Europe – maybe even less so in some ways. Being a homogenous society, prejudices are harder to eradicate.
Then again, Europe's favorite way to be prejudiced is by culture and nationality – something we're generally more okay with. Right now, the island is FLOODED with Italians. At Petra yesterday, not only did Italians make up at least 75 percent of beachgoers, but the cultural difference between then and other visitors was literally visible. Lounge chairs were turned every which direction, women wore a lot of very sparkly and very skimpy swimwear and the smell of cigarette smoke wafted downwind. Most annoying to me personally was that people would sooner walk into me than say "excuse me" or "mi scusi".
When I mentioned to Andreas -who is himself Italian and owns the one actual Italian gelateria on the island – how many Italians were on the beach, he said, "I hate it!"
"Why?!"
"They talk too much! They're too loud! They always ask me questions like how did I get to what I'm doing and they want to do it too. I don't want them all here! They are so messy – and just loud!!!"
I said I didn't like all the smoking and the lounge chairs in disarray.
"They make a big mess, the chairs this way and that…. And the smoke…."
Andreas vapes and when we met him, smoked. But whatever, he's elevated himself.
That's the thing about prejudice – it usually contains a grain of truth, though it doesn't have to be at all rational or fair.
