After Whoopi Goldberg made her famous comments on the daytime talk show “The View,” she went on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to explain her thinking. Her thinking was that the Holocaust was not about race because it was one group of white people inflicting evil upon another group of white people. She explained: “As a Black person, I think of race as something I can see. So I see you, and I know what race you are…. If the Klan is coming down the street, and I’m standing with a Jewish friend and neither one—well, I’m going to run. But if my friend decides not to run, they’ll get passed by most times because you can’t tell most times who is Jewish. It’s not something people say, oh, that person is Jewish, or this person is Jewish.”
In her mind, race has to do with color. Stephen Colbert tried to support her thinking by saying that was why Jews had to wear the yellow star—so people could know who was and who was not Jewish. I won’t address the Klan’s hatred of (white) Jews but instead will address the assumption that Whoopi’s hypothetical Jewish friend has white skin and thus has nothing to fear.
Did you ever wonder how a religion whose followers started in the Middle East, a non-white part of the world, became a “white” religion?
The assumption that Jews are white demonstrates a lack of understanding of Jewish history and the Jewish Diaspora, where Jews were taken into exile during biblical times. In the Middle Ages, Jews migrated and suffered repeated expulsions over the centuries—including fleeing from Germany—which has resulted in Jews in every corner of the globe. Three percent of the Jewish population is spread among 98 countries. Jews have resettled in almost every corner of the world, and people of nearly every ethnicity have converted to Judaism and/or intermarried.
If Whoopi were standing next to Rabbi Shais Rishon, also known as MaNishtana, or Rabbi Alysa Stanton, the first African American female rabbi, they would have as much to fear from the Klan as she would. Jews also descend from ancient communities in Ethiopia, India and China. Whoopi’s hypothetical Jewish friend could be Black, Hispanic, Asian, Arab or even a darker-skinned Jew from the Mediterranean, European, countries such as Spain, Portugal or Italy.
Whoopi and others often assume all Jews are Ashkenazi Jews and forget about Sephardi Jews in Northern Africa, Spain and Portugal and Mizrachi Jews from communities in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. This led to the “Jews of color” movement, where non-white Jews have tried to embrace their own non-white identity, even with white skin. (A Jew with white skin might identify as non-white because they are Iranian.)
The assumption that Jews are white drives Black Jews in America crazy. All too often, when it comes to discussions about racism, they see their white Jewish counterparts go to Black Christians instead of them.
Concerning changing Jewish demographics, a story in The Washington Post reported the following: A Pew Research Center poll among a random sample of 4,718 Jewish Americans released last week found 92% of American Jews overall identify as white. In contrast, 4% are Hispanic, 1% are Black and 3% identify with another race or ethnicity.
But younger Jews are far more likely to say they are not white. In all, 15% of Jewish adults in the United States under 30 years old are Hispanic, Black, Asian, another non-white race or multiracial; 12% for ages 30 to 39. That compares with just 4% of Jews ages 50 to 64 who are non-white and 3% of those 65 and older.
Other studies say the 6% number is an undercount and that between 12%-15% of American Jews are Jews of color. Some estimates put the number of non-white Jews in America at around 1 million. So, there is a good chance a hypothetical Jewish friend is a Jew of color and would have something to fear from the Klan.
Another aspect of Whoopi’s thinking that was overlooked is that, for centuries, some Jews have been easily identified and attacked not because of their skin color but because of their appearance. Those following Hasidic or some Orthodox practices are just two such examples. Those just wearing a kippah or yarmulke have experienced antisemitic attacks. Current antisemitic attacks based on appearance demonstrate that Whoopi is wrong to suggest that those with white skin have nothing to fear from the Klan or any other white supremacists.
As many have already pointed out, Jews were singled out in Nazi Germany because of their race. Jews were viewed as an inferior race compared to the aryan race. Whoopi’s thinking reflects a lack of Holocaust education and a modern understanding of race, as found in census data. The Office of Management and Budget requires that race data be collected for a minimum of five groups: white, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Another permitted option is a sixth category: “some other race.” Respondents may also report more than one race. Given these choices, “Jewish” is not a race.
In an era of white-privileged thinking, it may be hard for some to understand that being Jewish with white skin puts them in both a category of privilege and being a persecuted minority. Having white skin is not enough to prevent antisemitic attacks.
When discussing who is Jewish, we often think about culture, ethnicity and religion—and religion can range from Orthodox to atheist. But we need to think about race as well because of the changing demographics and the number of Jews who identify as Jews of color.
We cannot let ourselves fall into the stereotype that Jews are affluent, powerful whites with the ability to assimilate into white America and thus automatically imbued with white privilege. We must recognize there are Jews with white skin who present themselves as everything from Arab to Hispanic, who experience racism and antisemitism, and do not think of themselves as having white privilege even though they have white skin. It’s one thing for Whoopi or commentators to not know that; it’s another for fellow Jews to not realize it. We need to be more knowledgeable about the changing demographics of Jews to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion aspirations in our efforts to repair the world.
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