Editor,
In line with the media generally, “International students go silent” in the Daily Journal Aug. 11 edition repeatedly uses antisemitism to mean anti-Jewish when Jews represent less than 4% of the world’s Semitic population — the overwhelming majority of whom are Arabs and Ethiopians.
However, I have yet to see or hear Israel’s West Bank settlers — most of whom could more accurately be described as colonists, terrorists or both — referred to by the media as antisemites for killing or destroying the property of native-born Palestinian Arabs.
Likewise, I tire of seeing grocery store aisles labeled Hispanic foods when they offer only Mexican food and nothing at all from Spain, Cuba, Peru or the rest of the Spanish-speaking world.
The subtle implication in both of the above usages is that there is something derogatory about the words Mexican and Jew, when neither of them is any more bigoted than American, Canadian, Christian, Muslim or Arab.
A Semite is any person whose native tongue is one of the four Semitic languages (Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic or Hebrew) or anyone who is a product of one of those cultures. Likewise, there is nothing negative in the term Mexican food. As for Hispanic foods, I also have yet to run into a taco or a jar of salsa that speaks Spanish.
Mark Behrend
East Palo Alto
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(3) comments
Point well taken Mark. 😊
Thank you Mark. I never understood the terms correctly until now, and I’m nearly 75!
all else is "Anglo."
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