r/JewsOfConscience • u/AutoModerator • 17d ago

AAJ "Ask A Jew" Wednesday

It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday! Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.

Please remember to pick an appropriate user-flair in order to participate! Thanks!

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u/valonianfool Anti-Zionist 17d ago

Do you think jewish people can be white/that being jewish cancels out white privilege?
I've noticed that its often jewish zionists who claim that being jewish makes you inherently a POC, and I've seen a post stating that all jewish ppl, even converts from completely white backgrounds are not only poc but "middle Eastern", and I don't really accept that.

While I'm aware that for the vast majority of history jewish ppl were excluded from whiteness and treated as a racial "other", so there is a fair argument that no jew, no matter how pale their skin is privileged to all of whiteness, at the same time some of the most prominent out of touch "White Feminists" like Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer, and I have some trouble with dealing with the fact that being jewish doesn't preclude you from being a white feminist.

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u/Thisisme8719 Arab Jew 16d ago

Racial categorization isn't a description of reality, but of how race is perceived in different societies. So it varies from place to place. In the US most of the Jews were legally considered white because they came from Christian European countries. That was actually how they were able to naturalize since one of the legal requirements for foreigners to attain citizenship before 1952 was to be a "free white person" or of "African descent." Jews who came from other continents, or even Ottoman Europe, had to fight in court to naturalize or rely on legal precedents from other Jews or Christians who immigrated from the same regions, and they didn't always succeed because it wasn't clear if they could legally be considered "white."