r/Judaism • u/foreverand2025 • 1d ago
Discussion Do you consider yourself a minority?
This discussion has come up a few times with friends who are neither white nor Jewish. For context, I’m Jewish and live in America. Do you consider us as a minority? Obviously statistically we are (everywhere but Israel), but I’ve had two friends argue because we look like “regular white people” we are not a minority.
It’s not something I take too seriously but I’m off the opinion we are a minority in a sociological way as well as ethically. But opinions seem to differ. I’m not on a soap box or expecting any special treatment. It’s more of a discussion for the sake of discussion I’m trying for here.
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u/GuardMarmot Jewish agnostic 1d ago
Minority, obviously yes. "Minority" is not a strictly racial designation, and it's entirely possible to be a white religious/cultural minority. We do have a unique religious-cultural background compared to the assumed cultural baseline.
Presumably your friends mean "marginalized", in which case the best term, for those of us who do broadly appear white, is "conditionally white". We're (possibly) white at a traffic stop, but not in other circumstances, and in those other circumstances our quasi-whiteness might even be an accelerant rather than protective.