What is the most liberal ethnic group in the U.S.?

[dazzleman]

Being Jewish I have some insight into the political views of my people. First, Jews are very not xenophobic. We have lived among so many different groups over the years that we have developed a live and let live attitude that gets extended into acceptance of gay rights and casual drug use. However, we greatly resent the religious right's assumptions that their "values" are the best fit for everybody. Jews are also taught a great sense of obligation to help the less fortunate. The Hebrew word tzedukah, which is usually translated as charity, literally means justice. This obligation extends past the individual and is incumbant upon society as well. Possessing our own slavery story, Jews are particularly sympathetic regarding the African-American experience, often to a fault. Jews are also much more cautious about getting involved in wars, unless absolutely necessary. Most Jews are also not very observant of their religion with rare attendance of services and omnipresent doubters.  Put it all together, and you get overwhelming numbers of Jews voting Democratic. Very Orthodox Jews are an exception, as they like a lot of the anti-gay, anti-abortion stuff that Evangelicals like. These people are a small minority of Jews, though.

I'd say Jewish people are the most sincerely liberal ethnic/religious group in the US.

Blacks vote more strongly Democratic, but not necessarily as liberal.  In many ways, blacks are quite socially conservative in some ways, despite the fact that their general family structure, statistically, is pretty much the antithesis of that advocated by conservative philosophy.

I do find, though, that despite their professed sympathy for blacks, Jews are in practice less likely to live in proximity to blacks than less well-off whites.

[dazzleman]

I do find, though, that despite their professed sympathy for blacks, Jews are in practice less likely to live in proximity to blacks than less well-off whites.

From my experience secular Jews are the most liberal. 

Regarding the proximity: I think you have to make a distinction between secular vs. Religious/Haredi groups.  Many of the Hasids live right in the middle or on the outskirts of the "hood".

The difference between Jews and many other ethnic groups is that they are liberal even when it is apparently against their interests.

From observing and speaking with the Jewish people that I have known, I have concluded that they have been deeply affected by the persecution that their ancestors have suffered, in a way that is difficult for non-Jews to truly understand.

The Irish tend to sweep a lot of their past oppression under the rug, once they become assimilated.  I never heard anything about that from the relatives on the Irish side of my family, except for one great aunt who was the least assimilated of the group.  For the rest, it's as if it never happened.

Similar events, at least in kind (if not degree), but totally different reactions.  Very interesting.

[dazzleman]

I do find, though, that despite their professed sympathy for blacks, Jews are in practice less likely to live in proximity to blacks than less well-off whites.

Jews tend to live in urban and inner-suburban major metropolitan areas, the same places blacks live. Less well off whites are much more likely to live in rural areas, very far from blacks. Here in Memphis, Jews are some of the only whites who send their kids to the public schools.

So close yet so far.

[dazzleman]

I do find, though, that despite their professed sympathy for blacks, Jews are in practice less likely to live in proximity to blacks than less well-off whites.

Jews tend to live in urban and inner-suburban major metropolitan areas, the same places blacks live. Less well off whites are much more likely to live in rural areas, very far from blacks. Here in Memphis, Jews are some of the only whites who send their kids to the public schools.

So close yet so far.

We're still a hell of a lot more acquainted with blacks than the poor whites who mostly live in rural areas and have probably never seen a black person in their entire lives. This was the case for a co-worker of mine who just moved to Memphis from rural Missouri. Despite what you want to think, people with options can live near black people (lady across the street from me is black) and still be liberal. In fact, this is the norm in major cities across the country. It is the Republican base, exurbs and rurals, who have next to no experience with blacks.

Not really true in the north.  The south may be different.

[dazzleman]

I do find, though, that despite their professed sympathy for blacks, Jews are in practice less likely to live in proximity to blacks than less well-off whites.

Jews tend to live in urban and inner-suburban major metropolitan areas, the same places blacks live. Less well off whites are much more likely to live in rural areas, very far from blacks. Here in Memphis, Jews are some of the only whites who send their kids to the public schools.

So close yet so far.

We're still a hell of a lot more acquainted with blacks than the poor whites who mostly live in rural areas and have probably never seen a black person in their entire lives. This was the case for a co-worker of mine who just moved to Memphis from rural Missouri. Despite what you want to think, people with options can live near black people (lady across the street from me is black) and still be liberal. In fact, this is the norm in major cities across the country. It is the Republican base, exurbs and rurals, who have next to no experience with blacks.

Not really true in the north.  The south may be different.

No, in the North, Jews and blacks live fairly close together, with most poorer whites living far away in rural areas. Granted, urban neighborhoods are not really integrated, but different races do see each other and get along pretty well. You claimed that Jews are less likely than lower class whites to live nearly blacks.  This is not an opinion. It is demonstrably incorrect. I think the trouble is that you haven't met many poorer whites. They are rare in major metro areas. Jews are also much less common in exurbs, which have few blacks, than they are in closer in communities. 

I think the trouble is that you know little about the north, and then lecture somebody who has lived there all his live about conditions there.

There are plenty of lower middle class/poor urban whites in the north.  There are even lower middle class Jews in northern cities, though their numbers are dwindling.  Yes, there are poor rural whites, but they're not the only poor whites.

Poorer whites in urban areas are forced by economic circumstances to live closer to poor blacks than well-off whites.  These days, there aren't a lot of Jewish people among them, though there used to be a lot of lower middle class Jewish neighborhoods in New York City and some in Boston.

Jews have abandoned those neighborhoods for the suburbs, and they have become mostly black or other minority.  Jews have even abandoned more upscale neighborhoods to escape black migration.  My mom grew up in an upper middle class Jewish neighborhood on the white side of a half-black city in Westchester County, NY.  Once the city integrated the high schools, the Jews fled for other towns right along with the other whites.

For you to claim that the Jewish person in New York who lives at Park & 72nd is more in touch with blacks than a lower middle class white person who lives in an outer borough neighborhood surrounded by black neighborhoods is absurd.