Many questions about this post, that I’ve now seen numerous times. It always brings me back to the question about “white.” Are the people who say things like this confusing “white” with “gentile?” Do they not believe Jews are white?

@AlliFlowers I mean Irish people weren’t white a hundred years ago. It’s not a fixed category, it’s not encoded in genes in any way, and our (Ashkenazi) status as white people has been contingent and/or contested at best - whatever we may look like.

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@MisuseCase I would have thought it was pretty concrete since it’s a visible thing.

@AlliFlowers It’s not, a few centuries ago it didn’t even exist. You had, like, French people and British people and Castillian people, etc. but no such thing as white people.

@AlliFlowers @MisuseCase 'White" is pretty much an invention and more about societal power than the amount of melanin one does or doesn't present in their skin. The definition changes based on continuing that power structure. That's how Irish and Italians became "white", and it's how a lot of Latinos will become "white" within the near future.

@AlliFlowers @MisuseCase well, it definitely makes me answering surveys always put other or prefer not to answer. lol

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