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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023

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Douglas Emhoff, husband of Kamala Harris, posted a photo on Twitter celebrating the Jewish American Heritage Month.

Met with Jewish White House staff in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month. Our Administration is proud to recognize the Jewish staffers who help carry our nation forward each day and are helping create a more inclusive tomorrow.

I counted, give or take, 155 Jewish Staff Members. There are 474 White House Staff Members in total, meaning that Jews comprise 32% of all staff members. This is a radical over-representation of 1400%, or 14x what should be expected given the population of 2.2%. As everyone pictured is White, presumably this really is a photo with all the Jewish staff members who wanted to participate in the event (otherwise: why no black staffers present?). There may be some not pictured for various work-related or personal reasons, and perhaps some with Jewish spouses pictured. I had difficulty finding the figures on other demographics. According to an authoritative source, 14% of the staff are Black (this just happens to be the same number and is not a typo). I could find nothing on Asian members, but perusing the total list of White House Staff names I calculated give or take 50 with exclusively Asian names; this should be construed as a minimum because of high exogamy rates and names not always being obviously Asian. That puts Asians at 10.5%. Given that Black people sit at 14%, I would go out on a limb and say that the Latino constituents also comprise roughly their makeup in America; let’s peg it at a slightly lower 15% (if someone wants to check from the list of staffers’ names be my guest).

All of this puts the non-Jewish White percent at 28.5%, counting the Turkish and Arab names as White (and ignoring the probably ~2% Native American that Joe slipped in there). And so, among White House staffers, Whites are quite under-represented and Jews are enormously over-represented. This is problematic IMO, because the domestic founding population of a nation shouldn’t be so under-represented, and a single ethnic cluster with a strong activism network and their own influential nation state probably shouldn’t be 14x over-represented among White House staffers without anyone in established media criticizing or noticing. Alas, such topics have been posted frequently, but in previous cases the over-representation was among Cabinet Members and Supreme Court Justices and so on. This shows that even in a large sample size such as 474, the over-representation remains. If I could put my position into as few words as possible, I would steal from a random tweet on the subject: “Half of the White House staff is Jewish, but we get told that ‘White Supremacists’ run America lol.” What pains me is that while the default white Americans are so under-represented, they are the ones who face the most ruthless black propaganda against their demographic. It’s important to educate others on the problem of representation, I suppose.

I'm not sure what is the problem here, 100% of current US Presidents are exactly the group you feel "represents" you. So you should feel much more "represented" by it then "under-represented" by White House stuff, which mostly don't take any important decisions. Like, if the US President "represents" you but a janitor "represents" the filthy Jews, why you're feeling bad?

Of course, to some this approach seems utterly insane, as I don't see why any random Jew would "represent" me just because he's also a member of 10-million ethnic group, or why any random White person would "represent" any other random White person, just because they are both have pale skin and not happen to be Jews (I guess anybody with pale skin who is not a Jew is qualified as "founding population", right?). But I guess to some people it makes sense somehow?

The President is a figurehead and serves his cabinet + staff + party + donors. Ethnic/Cultural representation is considered to be important by many which is why it is pushed by those in power on the Left. Jews are more likely to have certain political and social views than non-Jewish Whites going by available data. People do not spontaneously generate but have attitudes and views shaped by their culture. The reason “are Jews white” is even a topic written about by Jews over decades is because they understand that there are unique cultural and ideological elements among Jews which differentiates them from their Christian-ancestry cousins.

Ethnic/Cultural representation is considered to be important by many

Sure. Astrology is considered to be important by many too, so is the sacred status of cows (India has a billion people! If we go by numbers, I think we should talk about cows much more than about the White House!). That doesn't mean it makes any sense, and if your answer to "how does it make any sense" is just "a lot of people agree with me" - then probably you know it doesn't make any sense, but can't gather the strength to defy your peer group and get your mind free. Maybe one day.

I pray that the Jews one day “defy their peer group and free their mind”, as you put it. Do you do the same?

Interestingly enough, you don't pray that you do. It's always the other guy that has to do the work. Always others that are imperfect and need God to correct them (and, of course, even God needs your advice in that - there's no way He Himself could figure it out without your input! After all, he's only God - and the rumors are, He's at least 2/3 Jew at that, so no wonder!) Always praying for the other guy to be saved from his ignorance and delivered into the light, never for yourself. How selfless! It is really admirable.

I suppose I believe in a God of justice who does not privilege certain groups with the right to evade the objectivity of justice without recourse. I would have to consult the Pentateuch for further lessons.

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I would have to consult the Pentateuch for further lessons.

Wouldn't hurt. Reading more and assuming less about what's God's Justice looking like is not a bad idea.