What is the difference between the following three sentences:

Met up with Sneha the other night but she was hanging with her Indian Friends, so I left early and stopped at McDonalds for a BigMac.

Was  planning on going to Vegas The Lad's stag, I hear his Irish buddies are a riot, a total group of drunks.

My Friend Jenn is not around today, she's hanging with her Jewish Friends

I don't think I have to point out that the third line is the only one which I would have a hard time saying out loud although it's completely mundane.   I'm obviously aware that unlike Indian or Irish, Judiasm is not a ethnicity but rather a religion but in all three cases you are only using the ethnicity or religious affiliation in a descriptive way.   Even if you are NOT making a blanket statement about all people but just using it in context it seems that the mere mention of 'Jewish' or worse yet 'Jew' sets off a ton of alarms in my head as it seems inapropriate and implies bias and feels anti-semitic as it leaves your lips.  

The funny thing is actually that unlike race, ethnicity or creed the only one you actually have a choice about is Religion.  I can't change that I'm a Dutch boy but I can decide whether I'll be Catholic, so making a statement based on something I have no effect on, really should be less tolerated.   Not being Jewish I can't say if you can ever decide to not be Jewish anymore because I do believe it's probably as much Cultural as Religious but there are just as many cultural stigmas in being Indian or Irish I would think.

Even the fact that it's a religious group makes very little sense because if you said that you went to some Evangelical event it would have no punch to it at all although most people will think you are implying something about the event itself, so I don't believe it's an exception based on religion

I'm sure it's seeded in the historical persecution of the Jewish people but there have been many other groups of people who have been or have had historic tragedies done upon them including the Armenians, Arabs and Gays, but none of those would be ones I would be unconfomfortable saying outloud.

I went out to some Armenian Party with Shant, his Armenian buddies are so much livelier than the Armenians I know.

I spent two weeks in the middle east and found the Arabs to be  both the worst group and the best group of drivers I've ever come across.  Nobody follows any of the traffic laws and it's an total zoo but somehow they don't seem to get into any accidents

I went to a Gay bar with Miki; he denied knowing it was one but I caught him snorting coke off a dude's bare ass..

The only group which seems to be close in almost feeling wrong by the mere mention of them as one people might be the African Americans.   You wouldn't be able to say the following without looking over both shoulders first:



I would have a hard time saying

I went to a black party with Craig Wilson

While the line
          I went to some white-boy Frat Party with The Hick where we chatted up a bunch of round girls

seems competely appropriate while it has the same racial implications as the first line and this second line also seems to beat up on poor round girls who have done nothing but offered their services to legions of hard-up college guys.

so in closing, I have no idea why I can't say that "the Jewish Girls just sat in the corner talking amongst themselves" but it's totally fine to say that the "Dutch Guys were being a bunch of pompous aholes" but I'm determined to change it...   I will be from this day forward feel no need to pull any punches since I've made it clear I have no bias or ill-intentions (or at least that I am equal opportunity)