General Category > Ask JTF

Ask JTF For Motza'ei Tzom Gedaliah, September 16.

(1/7) > >>

admin:
BS"D

Note To All Posters: Only one post per person is permitted. Please make it a single, short question.

Chaim would love to answer all of your great questions but (unfortunately due to the number of questions and time constraints), if there is more than one short question, it will have to be moved to the Future Ask JTF section. We apologize for this inconvenience and only wish that every person has a chance to be heard on the show.

Or course, comments not directed to Chaim will be moved into a separate thread under The General Discussion.

Chaim has stated that only one short question or comment per poster will be answered. Please remember that even with these rules, the program is over 2 hours long every week! If you want to post a longer question, unfortunately, Chaim may or may not be able to answer it in it's entirety. In this case, you may copy and paste parts of your question for the following week.

Thank you for your kindness and respect regarding these rules.

________________________________________________________________________

BS"D

Gmar Chatima Tova,

Everyone has to take at least one "Diversity" class so this semester, I'm taking "Politics of Diversity". It's more like a Sociology course than a Political Science course. The teacher is black but he speaks the way blacks used to speak before Martin Luther King started with the accent (You did this accent on a QPTV show once.). The teacher said that his wife is white and that they have been the victims of hate crimes because of that. He said there is no Scientific basis for the concept of "race". He must mean biologically but the external physical concept does exist. You have said that there is no biological reason for races acting a certain way but rather it is cultural. The teacher said people look difference based on race because of where they come from. So I asked him what he would call it if not race so he said we'll discuss that on Friday (But we didn't.). He also passed out something from the website of "The Southern Poverty Law Center" which listed the number of hate groups by state so I went to the website and looked for New York to see if they listed JTF but they only listed "JDL" (In Brooklyn and Rochester.), as if it still existed. At least they also list black groups such as The Nation of Islam. I'm not sure ADL would list black groups. The black teacher also gave us a paper about him and it said he was head of the "affirmative action department" in some college. I think it was affirmative action studies and remember that that's not JTF's definition of affirmative action so maybe they teach about affirmative action policy. It reminds me of Tonycali's "gay studies" courses. The teacher also said that most people in jail in this country are white. But he agrees that blacks shouldn't act the way they JTF believes they do but he said people shouldn't generalize. I didn't mention to him JTF. He just mentioned that rap music is bad but the same thing can be said about white "Punk Rock" music.

I also asked him what would he call the physical differences if he wouldn't call it race and he said "That's a good question." or something like that. He said the differences are because of the environment were people lived so blacks became black because it's hot in Africa and Orientals got slanty eyes because it was cold where they originated. They probably originated in Siberia. All native Arctic peoples have Orientals eyes except The Lapps in Scandinavia but The Lapps still have have an Oriental admixture.

Here's my question: How would you answer my teacher when he said that "race is an unscientific social construct"?

Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim,
Chief Administrator.

jsullivan:
I'm posting this for Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim.

The reason I picked the specific Diversity class I'm taking is because it's not just about one group. I'm a History major so if I was going to take one in my own department, it would have to be "Black History" because they don't offer "White History". So the class I'm taking goes through all the ethnic groups and at the end of the semester, it even includes White Ethnic Groups. But it lists whites last and I think it lists blacks second after American Indians. Note that I'm not using the terms the book used. The book uses "American" after every group name except White Ethnic Groups. Within the the chapter on whites, they mention "Jewish Americans" which is very offensive to Jews because it is Anti-Jewish to use "politically correct" terms for Jews. Jews are American Jews because we are Jews first and foremost. Just because blacks added American, the "politically correct" morons want to use it for every group name. "Political correctness" and Judaism are antitheses of each other.

Dr. Dan:
Lashana Tova!  May you be inscribed in the Book of Life and that all your wishes come true this year..first and foremost, with a loving wife and a complete family. 

Chaim, when I came back from Israel recently I realized that in MY LIFE that religion and secularism should, at least, be both practiced in moderation. The benefit of Torah law written by Gd should be for our benefit here on earth and not as much for the sake of a next world or the new messianic world.  (Yes, I would rather go to heaven after death than hell and yes, I would like to be resurrected in the messianic era).  HOWEVER, 
I choose to follow the mitzvot of treating my fellow human being properly because, it's simply, the right thing to do. 
I choose to praise Gd daily and honor my parents because it's a healthier to be humble than haughty.   
I choose to learn an aspect of Torah from the eyes of wise men inspired by Gd because knowledge is good and their logic is beautiful to my brain like classical music is beautiful to my ears. 
I do not want to do these things for an incentive after death. 
I think one reason we are put in this world by Gd is to appreciate His Majesty and to, Gd willing, bring others into this world so that they can benefit the same thing. After all, only a few souls in this universe are lucky enough to be given a life.

What do you think of what you just read?

Shalom

Daniel

oh and to avoid any confusion with any of the Daniels on this forum, just call me "boreh meenay mizonot" for now on  :P

Mstislav:
Shalom Chaim,

The videos you and David do on youtube are invaluable, priceless works and it is a shame that most of the older JTF videos are not on youtube anymore. What do you think of making JTF videos available for downloading? P.S I miss the hats and dark sunglasses.

Thank you always for your dedication and hard work.

Mstislav

Dexter:
Shalom ve'Shana Tova, Chaim .

Do you prefer Capitalism over the Jewish economic way ?

Toda and Shana Tova again,
Ohad .

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page