{"id":82602,"date":"2015-12-19T18:09:33","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T02:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=82602"},"modified":"2015-12-19T18:30:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-20T02:30:24","slug":"is-it-a-copout-for-jews-to-say-they-are-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=82602","title":{"rendered":"Is It a Copout for Jews to Say They Are ‘White’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are Jews white? It depends on the incentives.<\/p>\n

From Haaretz<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago I began the long process of applying to several American universities. So there I was, filling the lines away, until I found myself faced with a nasty old foe – the ethnicity check box.<\/p>\n

For any Jewish person faced with the spare prose of official U.S. forms, there always comes that strange moment of stumbling across that stubborn box. It\u2019s not that you don\u2019t know it\u2019s coming \u2013 if you\u2019ve been around the block once or twice you know for a fact that it\u2019s coming \u2013 but you hope maybe this time they forgot. Maybe this time you won\u2019t have to face that strange decision.<\/p>\n

But, time and time again, it appears, out of the proverbial bend, just when you least expect it. You stand facing that monolithic square and try to decide for the umpteenth time what you are: \u201cwhite\u201d or \u201cother\u201d?<\/p>\n

That choice is seemingly easier as a result of the little parenthetical remark next to the “white” option, which now includes \u201coriginal peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East.\u201d That addition should, ostensibly, solve the problem for Mizrahi Jews \u2013 Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent \u2013 but I\u2019m still stumped. As an Israeli of Ashkenazi descent, am I a people of the Middle East? I mean, I think I am, but then again I\u2019m told I\u2019m not that either.<\/p>\n

More recently, the U.S. census bureau, following lobbying by American organizations and activists, started testing of a new separate category for individuals identifying themselves as originating from the Middle East and North Africa ahead of the planned 2020 census. In other words, on that questionnaire they would have the option of choosing MENA, and not “white.”<\/p>\n

But the issue of Jews identifying themselves as white or not, is not just one of race or complexion or even origin, but of attaching oneself, or distancing oneself, from power. The problem is whether Jews are willing to stop being white.<\/p>\n

There was a time, one that perhaps persists, when being white, or being able to pass as white, meant power. It meant you could, in a racist world, move ahead, create a better life for your children. That made the choice quite easy for Jews living in the white world: they would definitely mark down \u201cwhite,\u201d since every other choice meant discrimination and pain. It\u2019s that Jewish survival thing, where you choose what aids in not being killed, not being marginalized, or at least reduces the chances of both. If white works, go for white….<\/p>\n

But, in a world that is becoming increasingly multicultural, and in which distinct ethnic groups, including the many Jewish extractions, begin to not only attempt to hide their differences but take pride in them, that \u201cassimilate\u201d part is beginning to take on a much more sinister tone. Passing as white, in this sense, is its own quiet extermination of identity and history, the kind in which one discards any trait that marks them as different in the hopes of surviving another day.<\/p>\n

So yes, a good student of Jewish history definitely should go for that \u201cwhite\u201d box, since it provides you with a sense of security and of proximity to power. But, I think until a different box comes along, perhaps one that reads \u201caccepted as white by whites as long as you\u2019re nice,\u201d I\u2019ll stick with my \u201cother.\u201d It seems that\u2019s what the world is telling me to be anyway. Might as well enjoy it.<\/p>\n

COMMENTS TO STEVE SAILER<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* If Jews were tabulated separately from whites for the purposes of racial bean-counting, it would be terrible for the Jews and the Narrative in general. It would make their extreme overrepresentation in elite institutions very obvious, and give the lie to the notion that generic \u201cwhites\u201d are dominating these institutions.<\/p>\n

* Why aren\u2019t Jews counted ethnically on the US Census, like everyone else is? I think the terms \u201cAshkenazi\u201d and \u201cSephardi\u201d would cover 98% of them, referring to blood not faith (eg, Lawrence Auster, not Sammy Davis, Jr), so it\u2019s not a First Amendment issue.<\/p>\n

Instead, they\u2019re Russians, Poles, Hungarians, etc, clouding matters not only for themselves but for those other groups as well.<\/p>\n

* \u2018Other\u2019 box?<\/p>\n

If they are proud, they should check JEWISH.<\/p>\n

And we shall soon find out that there is a group even MORE POWERFUL than the whites.<\/p>\n

Of course, that is why Jews prefer \u2018other\u2019 than \u2018Jewish\u2019.<\/p>\n

* Is the flight-from-beauty phenomenon related to this?<\/p>\n

For example, the stunning French singer Aliz\u00e9e in 2003:<\/p>\n