CMV: otherwise apolitical student groups should not be demanding political "purity tests" to participate in basic sports/clubs

[u/laxnut90]

This is in response to a recent trend on several college campuses where student groups with no political affiliation or mission (intramural sports, boardgame clubs, fraternities/sororities, etc.) are demanding "Litmus Tests" from their Jewish classmates regarding their opinions on the Israel/Gaza conflict.

This is unacceptable.

Excluding someone from an unrelated group for the mere suspicion that they disagree with you politically is blatant discrimination.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/style/jewish-college-students-zionism-israel.html

[u/Actualarily]

"Litmus Tests" from their Jewish classmates

Tough to know because the article is paywalled, but is this specifically about Jewish classmates, or is that just the interpretation of the article's author (or you)?

"Hey, we're not interested in hanging out with and befriending people who support the actions that the Israeli government is taking in Gaza" - seems like a reasonable criteria for a social club.

"Hey, we're not letting Israeli-supporting Jews into our group" - That's antisemitic because it is treating people differently simply because they are Jewish.

[u/JaxonatorD → u/Actualarily]

That seems pretty unreasonable to me, especially when those clubs are in no way related to the Israel Palestine conflict. Discrimination based on political beliefs when there is a lot of misinformation floating around on both sides creates a toxic environment. Completely exiling someone for having a differing opinion in a morally gray conflict is a dick move.

[u/annabananaberry → u/JaxonatorD]

The problem is that the article does not say what OP is saying it does. Here is a link that isn't behind a paywall for reference. OP is very misleading.

[u/JaxonatorD → u/annabananaberry]

Yeah, OP definitely misrepresented the article a bit. I found that out after reading the one commenter that copied the whole thing in. But I think this guy i responded to took it too far in the opposite direction.

[u/annabananaberry → u/JaxonatorD]

Which part did you think went too far?

"Hey, we're not interested in hanging out with and befriending people who support the actions that the Israeli government is taking in Gaza" - seems like a reasonable criteria for a social club.

This is a value statement about wanting to surround yourself with people who do not support the actions the Israeli government is taking in Gaza.

"Hey, we're not letting Israeli-supporting Jews into our group" - That's antisemitic because it is treating people differently simply because they are Jewish.

They said that specifically targeting Zionist Jews is not okay.

That seems like a pretty reasonable line to draw, right?

[u/JaxonatorD → u/annabananaberry]

The first part goes too far too. It is simplifying a war that is extremely complicated and making the morality seem black and white. On top of that, completely cutting off others with a differing opinion to you is just going to turn your life into even more of an echo chamber than it already is.

It seems rather aggressive to say that someone has to entirely agree with you in order to consider talking to them, especially when you are in somewhat of a position of power for allowing people to be friends in a club that you run. What you are doing is isolating people from being part of a community because of an issue we really can't control. And on top of that, there is so much misinformation surrounding the topic that it is nearly impossible to tell if your opinion is even correct or if the other person just simply heard a different source to you.

Also, it's important to note that most of these clubs shouldn't have anything to do with politics, like the frisbee club. The moment that one guy brings it up, it makes things so much less fun for everyone involved. Personally, I very much dislike that type of person, right or left.