To the editor:

Some claim that Jesus wasn’t white even though he was a Jew. People of Jewish ancestry belong to the white (Caucasian) race and resemble Europeans.

George Zimmerman’s white identity was emphasized after he shot a black teenager. His white ancestry is from his Jewish father. (His mother, a South American Indian, is not white.) If Jesus, a Jew wasn’t white, how does Zimmerman’s half Jewish ancestry make him white?

Radical white liberals, who despise their own race, believe that oppressors are always white but non-whites are victims. According to left-wing radical politics, Jesus couldn’t be white because he was a victim.

Columnist Kathleen Parker said (Dec. 24) that Jesus “probably wasn’t” white. She explained: “A Jew living in the Middle East 2000 years ago-pre-sunscreen, not to mention at least 40 days wandering in the desert-Jesus probably wasn’t light-skinned, brown-haired, sometimes blue-eyed lad most Americans…thought they knew…”

That is absurd. He couldn’t be a member of the white race or have blue eyes and brown hair if he had a dark tan? Racial identity is based on genetic factors, not exposure to the sun.

Skin color doesn’t accurately define the white (Caucasian) race and even the word “white” is misleading. The lightest skin color of Caucasians is beige and the darkest (in North Africa and India) is brown.

A Jewish tradition says that Jews descended from David had blonde hair. Jesus was a descendent of David.

An official of the Roman Empire wrote a description of Jesus confirming this. He described Jesus as a young man with “golden” (blond) hair, leaning against a tree talking to a group of people.

Robert Kohtala

Chassell