Are Jews White or are they Minorities?

[PlatinumGold]

I saw this in the other race thread and it seemed interesting. This so called White majority, (which i'm not a part of) is really a conglomeration of a lot of different cultures. Jews, Irish, Polish, Italians, Germans all had points in history when they suffered a lot for their race. i'm sure there are others. also, taken individucally i'm not sure that any of them could be considered a majority.

so how are we defining race in the US?? when minorities (read black and hispanic here as they don't consider asians minorities) complain about the "white race" who exactly are the complaining about.

sits back and waits to be flamed.

 

[Cyberian]

I have yet to hear a reasonable, acceptable definition of "race".

If anybody has one, could you please share?

 

[Amused]

Jews are religious and cultural minorities. They are not racial minorities, IMHO.

 

[stick]

Thats a good question...Im Jewish myself and I've never even thought of asking this before. Ive always just thought of myself as white. hmmm....

 

[Spoooon]

Do you think "Jew" is an offensive word? By offensive, I don't mean the equivalent of "ni***r" or anything, but still it has a certain tone to it that makes it sound a little demeaning. Though, Jewish person is kind of clumsy and doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. On the other hand, you don't call Methodists "Meths" or Baptists "Baps".

btw, I'm not being super sensitive or whatever, just curious as to what other people think.

 

[Burnt]

I always wondered why there were whites, blacks, asians, and jews. Why do people incorporate a religious group when describing race? Why not Catholics, jews, christians, etc then?

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Spoooon
Do you think "Jew" is an offensive word? By offensive, I don't mean the equivalent of "ni***r" or anything, but still it has a certain tone to it that makes it sound a little demeaning. Though, Jewish person is kind of clumsy and doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. On the other hand, you don't call Methodists "Meths" or Baptists "Baps".

btw, I'm not being super sensitive or whatever, just curious as to what other people think.

Im jewish and feels kind of the same way. It does feel weird when i get called a 'jew', its kind of belittling. But in all honestly, it seems to have become an accepted term, so it dosent bother me all that much.

EDIT: Now that i think about it, using the word 'Jews' dosent seem nearly as bad as saying "a jew".

 

[TNTrulez]

Originally posted by: Burnt
I always wondered why there were whites, blacks, asians, and jews. Why do people incorporate a religious group when describing race? Why not Catholics, jews, christians, etc then?

People do that.

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: Burnt
I always wondered why there were whites, blacks, asians, and jews. Why do people incorporate a religious group when describing race? Why not Catholics, jews, christians, etc then?

I guess it could be because historically Jews have married other Jews. There wasnt much intermarriage untill relatively recently.

 

[UNCjigga]

Hmm, I know they traced an ancient African tribe all the way back to King Solomon's descendants because these people had blood VERY similar to Rabbi blood ("Rabbi blood" is what they called the blood of certain ancient Jewish orders/Kabals.) So I figure that constitutes race?

Jews are considered Semitic peoples, along with Arabs and other direct descendents of Mesopotamians. Of course, we ALL came from Africa or Mesopotamia, and then as we settled we evolved differently to suit different environments.

 

[Amused]

Yep... we are all technically African.

I am a proud African-American.

 

[Miramonti]

Its an interesting question and gets even tougher as mixed ethnicicities become more predominant.

In chicago, I get the impression that "minorities" fit into one or both of two categories: they don't speak english, or they have dark skin - usually it seems to be the skin issue tho, but there are many non-english speaking white eastern europeans (czech, romanians, hungarians, as well as polish) who also are considered (and treated like) minorities.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: AmusedOne
Yep... we are all technically African.

I am a proud African-American.

I might get cornrows as a symbol to my heritage

 

[RU482]

Originally posted by: AmusedOne
Yep... we are all technically African.

I am a proud African-American.

Word Brother, that's the dopest thing I've heard all diz-aye

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: redly1

Originally posted by: AmusedOne
Yep... we are all technically African.

I am a proud African-American.

Word Brother, that's the dopest thing I've heard all diz-aye

Not to be a killjoy... but this begs the question. Is African-American a culture, or a race? Do all African Americans speak like hip-hoppers or ghetto kids? Of course not.

OK, so I am a killjoy

 

[CripplerCrossface]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

Originally posted by: AmusedOne
Yep... we are all technically African.

I am a proud African-American.

I might get cornrows as a symbol to my heritage

please don't.

From where I see it jews are grouped with white people. My take is like the dude from chi-town eastern europeans are minorities as well as blacks, hispanics, and asians. I even know people that can spot a jew from other white people. I dont really care to study facial patterns like that cause it really doesnt matter to me. But from what I was taught jews are the whitest of them all. but that is not a personal belief.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: CripplerCrossface
But from what I was taught jews are the whitest of them all. but that is not a personal belief.

I would guess the irish are...unless they are exposed to the sun somehow, then they are red.

 

[Cyberian]

Are Jews White or are they Minorities?

This could be a tough discussion, because you are kind of assuming that 'minority' automatically means 'racial minority'.

Are men over 7' tall a minority?
People who are fluent in Danish?
Female commercial pilots?

 

[somethingwitty]

as far as I know you can't convert to a different race; you can convert to judaism. seems pretty straightforward to me-belief, not a race...

African Jews exist (some dark-skinned jews can trace their heritage back pretty far), so do white jews.

 

[Gameboy999]

Not all jews are white. My friend knows some Iranian jews (I kid you not) who look like your everyday arab muslims.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: Gameboy999
Not all jews are white. My friend knows some Iranian jews (I kid you not) who look like your everyday arab muslims.

Does the name Sammy Davis Jr. ring a familiar bell?

 

[Gameboy999]

Originally posted by: Cyberian

Originally posted by: Gameboy999
Not all jews are white. My friend knows some Iranian jews (I kid you not) who look like your everyday arab muslims.

Does the name Sammy Davis Jr. ring a familiar bell?

hehe, many arab jews actually have very deep jewish roots (as with African jews).

 

[alphatarget1]

I think the word "jews" is as offensive as "chinks" or "japs" or whatever. I'm not Jewish but I think it's pretty offensive to use that word.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: kenleung
I think the word "jews" is as offensive as "chinks" or "japs" or whatever. I'm not Jewish but I think it's pretty offensive to use that word.

Well, not always. None of my Jewish friends I've had throughout my life have considered "Jew" or "Jews" to be offensive if it is not meant to be so. They say it themselves.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Cyberian

Originally posted by: Gameboy999
Not all jews are white. My friend knows some Iranian jews (I kid you not) who look like your everyday arab muslims.

Does the name Sammy Davis Jr. ring a familiar bell?

Yeah, but Sammy was a convert He wasn't like the multigenerational black Jews in Eastern Africa who's line can be traced back thousands of years.