Ham

Like many traditions with a long historical pedigree, Judaism has inherited its share of texts with racial bias. Failure to acknowledge this is one reason for prevalent conscious and subconscious racist views that can be found in the American Orthodox Jewish community—the community of which I am a part—which sometimes reveal themselves in overt statements and actions.

Noah awakens from his drunken slumber, and realizes what his youngest son, Ham, did to him. Why, then, does Noah curse his grandson Canaan? Originally, Canaan was the perpetrator and was actually Noah’s youngest son.