If You Are White And Jewish, You Qualify As A Minority At CUNY

The New York Post reports on New minority label at CUNY: ‘Jewish’:

Touting a move to make its faculty more diverse, CUNY administrators have broken out Jews into a separate minority group: “White/Jewish.”
CUNY insists “some faculty” want the label, instead of being lumped in as just white. But the theistic tag has outraged both Jewish and non-Jewish professors, and sparked a furor.

The outrage is interesting though.


There is the professor who opposes the White/Jewish label on the basis of the word "Jewish":

“This is, as far as I know, the first time a religion has been introduced into any affirmative-action document,” said David Gordon, a history professor at Bronx Community College and the Graduate Center. “What would the response be to a category ‘White/Methodist?’ Silly? Irrelevant?”

Is the issue of Jewish DNA also silly and irrelevant?

On the other hand, there are those who seem comfortable with the idea that Jews are a race, but are more opposed to the other side of the White/Jewish label:

“It’s an insult and idiotic,” said Hershey Friedman, deputy chairman of the Finance and Business Management Department at Brooklyn College. “Most Jews are brown-skinned. We also have black Jews and Asian Jews. Once you mix religion with race you’re opening a Pandora’s box — and you look stupid.”

Since the whole point of this exercise is to boost the recruitment and inclusion of minorities, I suppose the publicity alone from this decision will draw attention to CUNY will help.

Other than that, how will this help.

With the growing debate as to whether going to college should really be a goal for everyone, at some point could everyone become a minority at the university?

Hat tip: Legal Insurrection: White/Jewish

Technorati Tag: Jews and Colleges and Universities.