4 ms·

"Jewish" and "white" are not considered to be mutually exclusive. It's very odd to see that categorization. Why do you group them like that?

justtopost 8y ago
How are the jewish people 'white'? Are black people white? Arabs? How are YOU drawing the line?
- paganel 8y ago
  Most of the Ashkenazi Jews are certainly white, as in they have white skin. I’d say that even the Sephardic Jews would be considered white based on their skin color alone. But categorizing people by skin color is one of the stupidest things ever, though, as I for myself am white (as in I have white skin) while my brother is more brownish, the reason for that being that our father is white-skinned while our mother is more dark-skinned.
- perfmode 8y ago
  Is zuckerberg white or jewish?
throwaway5752 8y ago
To the point, they are orthogonal and it's an incorrect comparison (regardless of any viewpoint on diversity).
deogeo 8y ago
They were treated as a separate group throughout most of Europe's history, and faced extreme prejudice and suffering because of it. Hardly seems fair to dilute their achievements and experience by lumping them under 'white'.
- iqy 8y ago
  If you don't lump them under "white", you'll see they are over-represented on higher positions of the media, tech, government, justice, etc. so it's in their own best interest to be lumped with whites.
  - deogeo 8y ago
    Do you have a source for this? Because as the founder of Facebook is jewish, Facebook might not be a representative sample. I.e. it's expected, since a large part of his social circle (family, friends) are also jewish.
    - ng12 8y ago
      I kind of don't want to touch this issue for obvious reasons, but a while ago I read that 20-25% of Ivy League students are Jewish [1]. It makes sense that they'd be over-represented in education-driven professions. 1. https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/The-most-heavily-Jewish-US-college-and-other-facts-about-Jews-at-American-colleges-437701 https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/The-most-heavily-Jewish-US-co...
    - devmunchies 8y ago
      Although i think this is normal behavior, it seems like a double standard. Wouldn't a white euorpean be inclined to do same thing (hire people similar to themselves)? I hope that as tech expands to all continents and becomes a truly globally distributed sector, we'll stop caring about race at a specific company since tech will competitive and diverse on a global scale. (e.g. a firm in India competing with a firm in Germany competing with a firm in Brazil)
    - jlawson 8y ago
      It's not just Facebook. Jews are massively over-represented at the highest levels of society in most fields. <2% of population in America, <0.25% globally. But: 20% of Nobel prize winners 10-25% of Harvard students (depending on source and school) 33% of US supreme court (3/9) 6% of US Congress 8% of US Senate There are equally or more extreme numbers for things like movie studio leadership, rech company leadership, newsmakers and opinion writers, actors, comedians, etc. I just don't have time to look up the figures atm. To be clear, I'm not saying there's anything wrong or right about this; it's just an easily-verifiable physical fact.
everythingswan 8y ago
A Jewish friend of mine once told me to pay attention to instances where they were classified as white or not and, dang, was she right. She called it being _selectively_ white. I think this is a good example of that.
- zozbot123 8y ago
  Asians get the same treatment, though. They're the minority that gets forgotten about, because it doesn't fit some convenient narrative of e.g. "White males are dominating STEM fields", or "Minorities are discriminated against and thus fail to achieve success and affirmation".
elboru 8y ago
For me (a Hispanic) it's odd to see any race categorization at all, it seems like an obsession for both right and left wings in the US. Why does it matter so much? White and Hispanic is not mutually exclusive in a lot of cases, the same for Black and Hispanic or Native American and Hispanic, in most cases it's difficult to even set a race tag.
- sgt 8y ago
  Race used by statistics and government is of course a simplification, so if you have to do it, you kinda need to embrace the simplicity of it. Personally I think the term caucasian works well. Jewish has of course a historic racial component, but practically (again, the simplicity) is more like an identity such as "hispanic". So if you are white hispanic, you're white. If you are jewish, you are white. If you're a black hispanic, you tick the box for black.
zozbot123 8y ago
In fact, even "Hispanic" and "white" are not considered to be mutually exclusive! These ethnic classifications are just weird.

justtopost 8y ago

How are the jewish people 'white'? Are black people white? Arabs? How are YOU drawing the line?

paganel 8y ago
Most of the Ashkenazi Jews are certainly white, as in they have white skin. I’d say that even the Sephardic Jews would be considered white based on their skin color alone. But categorizing people by skin color is one of the stupidest things ever, though, as I for myself am white (as in I have white skin) while my brother is more brownish, the reason for that being that our father is white-skinned while our mother is more dark-skinned.
perfmode 8y ago
Is zuckerberg white or jewish?

throwaway5752 8y ago

To the point, they are orthogonal and it's an incorrect comparison (regardless of any viewpoint on diversity).

deogeo 8y ago

They were treated as a separate group throughout most of Europe's history, and faced extreme prejudice and suffering because of it. Hardly seems fair to dilute their achievements and experience by lumping them under 'white'.

iqy 8y ago
If you don't lump them under "white", you'll see they are over-represented on higher positions of the media, tech, government, justice, etc. so it's in their own best interest to be lumped with whites.
- deogeo 8y ago
  Do you have a source for this? Because as the founder of Facebook is jewish, Facebook might not be a representative sample. I.e. it's expected, since a large part of his social circle (family, friends) are also jewish.
  - ng12 8y ago
    I kind of don't want to touch this issue for obvious reasons, but a while ago I read that 20-25% of Ivy League students are Jewish [1]. It makes sense that they'd be over-represented in education-driven professions. 1. https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/The-most-heavily-Jewish-US-college-and-other-facts-about-Jews-at-American-colleges-437701 https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/The-most-heavily-Jewish-US-co...
  - devmunchies 8y ago
    Although i think this is normal behavior, it seems like a double standard. Wouldn't a white euorpean be inclined to do same thing (hire people similar to themselves)? I hope that as tech expands to all continents and becomes a truly globally distributed sector, we'll stop caring about race at a specific company since tech will competitive and diverse on a global scale. (e.g. a firm in India competing with a firm in Germany competing with a firm in Brazil)
  - jlawson 8y ago
    It's not just Facebook. Jews are massively over-represented at the highest levels of society in most fields. <2% of population in America, <0.25% globally. But: 20% of Nobel prize winners 10-25% of Harvard students (depending on source and school) 33% of US supreme court (3/9) 6% of US Congress 8% of US Senate There are equally or more extreme numbers for things like movie studio leadership, rech company leadership, newsmakers and opinion writers, actors, comedians, etc. I just don't have time to look up the figures atm. To be clear, I'm not saying there's anything wrong or right about this; it's just an easily-verifiable physical fact.

everythingswan 8y ago

A Jewish friend of mine once told me to pay attention to instances where they were classified as white or not and, dang, was she right. She called it being _selectively_ white. I think this is a good example of that.

zozbot123 8y ago
Asians get the same treatment, though. They're the minority that gets forgotten about, because it doesn't fit some convenient narrative of e.g. "White males are dominating STEM fields", or "Minorities are discriminated against and thus fail to achieve success and affirmation".

elboru 8y ago

For me (a Hispanic) it's odd to see any race categorization at all, it seems like an obsession for both right and left wings in the US. Why does it matter so much? White and Hispanic is not mutually exclusive in a lot of cases, the same for Black and Hispanic or Native American and Hispanic, in most cases it's difficult to even set a race tag.

sgt 8y ago
Race used by statistics and government is of course a simplification, so if you have to do it, you kinda need to embrace the simplicity of it. Personally I think the term caucasian works well. Jewish has of course a historic racial component, but practically (again, the simplicity) is more like an identity such as "hispanic". So if you are white hispanic, you're white. If you are jewish, you are white. If you're a black hispanic, you tick the box for black.

zozbot123 8y ago

In fact, even "Hispanic" and "white" are not considered to be mutually exclusive! These ethnic classifications are just weird.