From: scott@prism.gatech.EDU (Scott Holt)
Newsgroups: soc.college
Subject: Christ's skin color (was Re: PC ...)
Date: 4 Sep 92 18:01:31 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology


In <3SEP199217531925@venus.lerc.nasa.gov> edsum02@venus.lerc.nasa.gov (Cassondra Pope) writes:

>                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Semite DOES NOT mean caucasoid.  Look at the word "semi"te. Semi means half, 
>would you agree.  

No, I would not - "semite" and "semetic" are not latin rooted words. The
work semite is derived from "Shemite" - decendents of Shem, son of Noah.

Caucasoid refers to the Caucasus - a mountain range in southeastern Europe.
Some THEORIES of civilization place the Caucasoid tribes as roots of those
that migrated into europe and western asia (i.e. the fertile cresent).
Of course the Caucasoid peoples, like all peoples, can most likely be traced
back to Africa (yes, I know there are some challenging theories).

Semites, in some THEORIES, are decendents of nomadic caucasoid tribes (I use
caucasiod to describe the geographic origin, not their race) who eventually
took to wandering in some specific areas - what we now call the fertile
cresent and the Arabian penisula. This was, up the discovery of America,
the cross roads of civilization. Every civilized people passed through that
region on trading missions. Through years of this, the (originally) caucasoid
peoples received input from Asian and African gene pools. By the time of
Abraham, they were a distinctly different people (no, not race) from the
Africans, Asians or Europeans.


>                 Semite is referring to how the Jews were half white.  Look at
>Exodus.  Here we have all these Hebrews leaving Africa (that's right Egypt is
>in Africa) but where were they going?!  No one seems to know.  Well, they were
>headed northward to Europe.  Thru intermarriage the Hebrews became know as
>semites to distiguish (i.e. prejudice) them from other whites.  THAT'S RIGHT,
>FOLKS! The original Jews were African, and thru hundreds of years of inter-
>marriage with the Europeans they became "white", but people like Hitler never
>forgot that the Jews were of African descent which is why he wanted to destroy
>them.

Now go back and read Genesis - Abraham, (you know, the guy the Jews and Arabs
like to call their common ancestor) lived in the region around Mesopotamia.
Thats the area we now call Iraq - a little removed from Africa I'd say. His
sons moved to Egypt (which was a racially diverse region) where they were 
first welcomed but eventually sold into slavery. They remained for some 400
years. This may seem like a long time, but intermarrige was uncommon so there
was not a great deal of genetic diversity added by the Egyptians.

After leaving, they settled in what became Judah and Israel where they
remained some 1500 years. Hardly the direct trek into Europe that you imply.
It was not until after Christ's death that the dispersion of the Jews took
place...though there were Jewish settlements in Europe before that.

>This does not mean that I (or anyone else) dont consider the Jews of today to be
>white.  To me, their just as white as any white person (and I'm sure they'll
>agree).  For the record, I'm not a fascist, racist, or Black nationalist. I only
>believe in TRUTH as hard as it may be to find in this day and age!

Well, the TRUTH in this matter is anything but HARD. Tracing the origins
of peoples is very inexact. There only theories, but since no records were
kept by many of the primative nomadic tribes from which we all sprang, nothing
will ever be certain. Recoded history is very short. For a good part of this 
history, people did not seem as obsessed with recording skin color as we 
seem to be.

>> 
>>And, given the current usage, since we've seemed to have dropped 'Negro'
>>and 'Caucasoid' for 'Black' and 'White', I didn't make a mistake.
>> 
>>Fool.  Go study a bit before you make assumptions that are dead wrong.
>> 
>>Speaking of which, Christ, as God, is not any color...he just happened to
>>be a Jewish (ie white) carpenter in His incarnation.
>              ^^^^^^^^
>WRONG

What does it matter what color Christ's skin was? To attach significance to
that only serves to degrade those people who don't have that skin color.
There is a big difference between historical fact and historical significance.
Some "facts" can be terribly trivial, the Lord's skin tone being one of them.
He was born as a Jew (a Semite) but died for everyone.

>Cass
>gt9153a@prism.gatech.edu

>P.S. I'm gonna be off the net for a few weeks so if you want to phlame me,
>send mail to my school address (above) and I'll get back to ya.
-- 
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
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