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Comment by mmaunder | Hacker News Reader

That is correct. I grew up under apartheid. This phrase is key: “ Proponents say the law helps ensure Israel's security and maintains its "Jewish character".”

Consider if the US passed a law banning Mexican spouses from uniting with their US spouse to keep America’s “Christian character”.

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> Consider if the US passed a law banning Mexican spouses from uniting with their US spouse to keep America’s “Christian character”.

That's not a very good analogy, because Mexico is probably more Christian than the US.

Mexico is certainly more homogeneous in its Christianity, being almost entirely Catholic. I doubt its more Christian in general than the U.S. though, with its diverse array of Protestant sects.

What if we change it to "Protestant"?

In this context Christian almost always means white even if they try to pretend that isn't the case. At least Australia didn't mince words and called it the White Australia Policy, everyone else feels like they need to make it about religon or something else to make the racism more palatable.

> In this context Christian almost always means white even if they try to pretend that isn't the case.

No, it doesn't. Also, aren't most Mexicans technically white (i.e. that's what they're supposed to check on a US census form)? It's just a bad analogy.

There are paths to modify that analogy to make it work (or at least work better) for the pair America and Mexico, but you're not following any of those.

I wasn't commenting specifically in the lens of Mexico/America just that generally it's thinly veiled racism.

"Western Culture" is the dog whistle we're hearing a lot in the US.

I love Western Culture as a term. In Central Europe it meant whatever was on the right side of Iron Curtain (mostly liberal democracy and all what comes with it), then Iron Curtain dissapeared and it got second meaning as white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant values protected in white, orthodox/catholic Slavic countries. Currently you have to guess which one it is from the context of the sentence.

I agree with your first paragraph.

Your second paragraph is one of the worst analogies I've seen in a while. You have to find a bordering country with a different religion with whom USA has been at war for decades.

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