Semitic Semantics

From another gem of an article in the aftermath of Mel-tdown:

(Focus on the Family ministry founder James Dobson) said in a statement that "we certainly do not condone that racially insensitive outburst," but added "Mel has apologized profusely for the incident and there the matter should rest."

For the perhaps 0.8 people who will eventually read this, I would like to make a statement for the record:

Judiasm is not a race.

Let's say it together:

Judiasm is not a race.

It is a set of beliefs, part of which are that Jesus was not the Savior, that the Messiah is still yet to come. From that you can extrapolate a whole two centuries of liturgies, canon and so forth.

As noted on answers.com, among many other places:

The traditional terms for these populations—Caucasoid (or Caucasian), Mongoloid, Negroid, and in some systems Australoid—are now controversial in both technical and nontechnical usage, and in some cases they may well be considered offensive. (Caucasian does retain a certain currency in American English, but it is used almost exclusively to mean “white” or “European” rather than “belonging to the Caucasian race,” a group that includes a variety of peoples generally categorized as nonwhite.)

Hey! They didn't mention Jews! Oh, wait. That's right.

Because Judiasm is not a race.

Neither, for that matter, is White, Black, Asian, or Aboriginal. But you just try go try using the actual words.

In the meanwhile, use words like you actually know what they mean.

I thank you for your attention to this matter.