Is it racist to say someone "looks Jewish"?

[Playball40]

If one is describing what someone looks like to another and the person says "she has an ethnic look" or "she looks Jewish" is this person being racist? If one says so and so "looks hispanic" it doesn't sound as bad as "looks Jewish".

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I don't think so. Certain groups have various physical traits which are more common in those groups. If you take it to the next level and say "Well, you have a small nose so you're not a real Jew", then you're being racist, but there's nothing wrong with saying someone has a Jewish look.

 

[Rhea]

It depends on whether you are saying the "look jewish" because of some physical trait or because what they are doing. If you say they look jewish because they share color hair or features of jewish people, then no and I agree with Tom. If you're saying they look jewish because they are counting their change carefully, then, yah, racist.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It could be.

The acceptability of "you look like <x>" depends on how the speaker feels about <x>.

If a Hamas member says "you look Jewish" that would be an insult.

If a rabbi says "you look Jewish" that's not an insult.

 

[fromderinside]

Not intending to put too politically correct point on it, but, if your community (including you) reflexively reacts negatively to the word Jew then one saying 'has a Jewish look' is indeed racist. (see, even the editor suggested capitalizing 'J' in jewish). Better to not appear responsible for a street lynching or star of David red dooring.

 

[whichphilosophy]

If one is describing what someone looks like to another and the person says "she has an ethnic look" or "she looks Jewish" is this person being racist? If one says so and so "looks hispanic" it doesn't sound as bad as "looks Jewish".

I don't see how this would be unless there is intent behind the question. If someone told a Palestinian he looks Jewish, to a Japanese person he looks Chinese or to a Korean he looks Japanese, that could be perceived as racist or an angry response could be perceived the same.

 

[credoconsolans]

Reminds me of a line in the TV series "Orphan Black".

Suburban soccer mom is trying to describe her friend's boyfriend.

"He looked...urban."

"Urban? What's that?"

Long difficult pause.

"Not white."

 

[Playball40]

Not intending to put too politically correct point on it, but, if your community (including you) reflexively reacts negatively to the word Jew then one saying 'has a Jewish look' is indeed racist. (see, even the editor suggested capitalizing 'J' in jewish). Better to not appear responsible for a street lynching or star of David red dooring.

I personally cannot imagine a scenario where me or my community would react negatively to the word Jew.
The question came up as someone I know was trying to describe what an architect looked like to someone who was meeting her, but never met her. There were going to be many people there and he was having trouble describing her features. He described her hair color and stature, but that was common. He said she looked ethnic. When the person didn't understand, he said, well she looks Jewish. No ill intent was behind it. When I heard about it I was wondering because I often say my DIL and grandson look Jewish--again with no malice or ill intent. She looks a lot like the girl that played Tzeidel in the movie adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, who I always thought of as very beautiful. But I guess it made me think.....does it sound racist. I think in my scenarios, that no, it doesn't, but I guess not knowing the audience, caution is prudent.

 

[Sabine Grant]

I have often referred to my older daughter as having Semitic traits versus her 2 siblings' physical traits. Semitic as in including Arab ancestry along with Jewish. Which both ancestries run through me from my father's side (Jewish) and mother's side (Arab Spaniards). I cannot fathom anyone would receive my observation as being "racist".

I suppose that if stating "she/he looks Jewish" when referring to physical traits is to be taken as racist, consistently then, one would have to apply the same conclusion to stating "He/she looks Arab".

My half sister is racially mixed (Malgache and Caucasian). Being such an exotic beauty, she has often been told how "ethnic" she looks though most people if they detect her Black ancestry would not be able to narrow it down to her native ancestry from Madagascar. In the US, they just assume she is of African American origin.

 

[J842P]

If one is describing what someone looks like to another and the person says "she has an ethnic look" or "she looks Jewish" is this person being racist? If one says so and so "looks hispanic" it doesn't sound as bad as "looks Jewish".

No it's not.

 

[whichphilosophy]

It could be.

The acceptability of "you look like <x>" depends on how the speaker feels about <x>.

If a Hamas member says "you look Jewish" that would be an insult.

If a rabbi says "you look Jewish" that's not an insult.

If a rabbi said that to a Hamas member he may feel this is 'racist' If a Hamas member says to a Jew you look Arabic, some may take great offence.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Not intending to put too politically correct point on it, but, if your community (including you) reflexively reacts negatively to the word Jew then one saying 'has a Jewish look' is indeed racist. (see, even the editor suggested capitalizing 'J' in jewish). Better to not appear responsible for a street lynching or star of David red dooring.

"Jew" is a proper name, of course you capitalize it and it's derivatives. That says nothing about whether it's racist or not.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It could be.

The acceptability of "you look like <x>" depends on how the speaker feels about <x>.

If a Hamas member says "you look Jewish" that would be an insult.

If a rabbi says "you look Jewish" that's not an insult.

If a rabbi said that to a Hamas member he may feel this is 'racist' If a Hamas member says to a Jew you look Arabic, some may take great offence.

No. This is pure insult, no racism.

 

[4321lynx]

People here can tell Arabs from Jews just by their physical appearance? You bunch of racists! How long did it take each of you to learn the difference?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

People here can tell Arabs from Jews just by their physical appearance? You bunch of racists! How long did it take each of you to learn the difference?

What, you think everyone from the Middle East looks the same? That's racist, dude.

 

[4321lynx]

People here can tell Arabs from Jews just by their physical appearance? You bunch of racists! How long did it take each of you to learn the difference?

What, you think everyone from the Middle East looks the same? That's racist, dude.

Rather than jumping to false conclusions tell me how you know one from the other. I know them from each other and from Ëuropeans¨only by their clothes, uniforms, religious symbols including religiously dictated style of hair, beard etc. Also by their stated opinions and of course, their actions. Both are semitic races¨, with¨, in the Jews, a good admixture of european . AAnd let´s not start another ¨race ör ¨species¨argument.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

What, you think everyone from the Middle East looks the same? That's racist, dude.

Rather than jumping to false conclusions tell me how you know one from the other. I know them from each other and from Ëuropeans¨only by their clothes, uniforms, religious symbols including religiously dictated style of hair, beard etc. Also by their stated opinions and of course, their actions. Both are semitic races¨, with¨, in the Jews, a good admixture of european . AAnd let´s not start another ¨race ör ¨species¨argument.

Dude ... note the smiley

 

[EricK]

Rather than jumping to false conclusions tell me how you know one from the other. I know them from each other and from Ëuropeans¨only by their clothes, uniforms, religious symbols including religiously dictated style of hair, beard etc. Also by their stated opinions and of course, their actions. Both are semitic races¨, with¨, in the Jews, a good admixture of european . AAnd let´s not start another ¨race ör ¨species¨argument.

Dude ... note the smiley

That smiley looks Jewish.

 

[doubtingt]

I agree with those who suggest that it is not wrong to say such a thing, but I would also argue that by the definition of racism often used on these boards, it is racist.
Such a statement takes presumed traits as covarying with ethnic group strongly enough to be used as a predictor of likely group membership, which is nothing less than the flipside of inferring a likely trait based upon group membership. Unless their is evidence that the speaker is singling out only negative traits with intent of being insulting, then whether the trait happens to be positive, negative, or neutral in valence should have no bearing on whether the statement is racist. Also, whether the generalization is objectively accurate is also not a relevant to whether it is racist.

What you'll often hear is that its okay to talk about physical traits but not behavioral or psychological ones. This is usually rooted in the unscientific notion that behavior and psychology is not heavily a product of biology. The objection also seems tied to the false notion that pointing to behavior-ethnicity relations is to claim the link is entirely biological. IOW, objectors simultaneously deny the biology of behavior and falsely assume any mention of ethnicity and behavior is a claim about pure biological determinism.

You are walking down the street at night past a black guy and a white guy. Neither guy is likely to rob you, but if one of them does, which one is it more likely to be? IF you say "the black guy", then you are objectively correct and rationally applying facts about relative likelihoods of such acts, yet many here would also say you are a racist for saying this or for making any argument that applies this factual knowledge.
In fact, this statement is likely less racist than the OP statement, because the difference in probabilities could easily be larger for mugging behavior (about 4 times greater for the black guy), than it is for a facial feature belonging to a Jew versus a Non-Jew person from the Middle East.

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Dude ... note the smiley

That smiley looks Jewish.

The one with the question marks looks more agnostic.

 

[fromderinside]

Not intending to put too politically correct point on it, but, if your community (including you) reflexively reacts negatively to the word Jew then one saying 'has a Jewish look' is indeed racist. (see, even the editor suggested capitalizing 'J' in jewish). Better to not appear responsible for a street lynching or star of David red dooring.

"Jew" is a proper name, of course you capitalize it and it's derivatives. That says nothing about whether it's racist or not.

...and all those trains going by with people with only empty trains coming back doesn't mean there's a genocide going on either. Convenient thinking.