I'm mostly white (where I am using "white" as shorthand for white-non-Hispanic), and I benefit from white privilege every day of my life. I was raised as what I'll call "culturally white". But I'm ~1/4 non-white (Sephardic (Hispanic) Jewish, with a small amount of Native American). And I still am not sure how to acknowledge and appreciate those parts of my heritage without coming off as a fake or as trivializing the experiences of PoC, especially since my "minority quantum" isn't even all one thing.
And then there's the whole weirdness-of-Ashkenazi-Jewish-racial-identity part, where Ashkenazim are generally considered to be white, but..."provisionally" might be the right word? "White with an asterisk." "White in some parts of the country." And the way that halfies are regarded in some Jewish circles, especially if they don't practice Judaism.
I bet there are plenty of works with the half-Jewish protagonist, but...there aren't even a lot of representations of ethnic Jews who are mixed Ashkenazi/Sephardi out there, let alone Ashkenazi/Sephardi/Welsh/English/Irish/Czech/German/Native American mixes.
I am worried that with this comment I am falling into the "Being [white ethnicity/white mutt] is just like being a PoC!" trap and hurting someone with my inarticulateness or carelessness, and if I have overstepped somewhere, I really and sincerely apologize. This entry resonated enough with my own identity issues that I felt compelled to comment, despite the fact that my own understanding is not quite worked out.
no subject
I'm mostly white (where I am using "white" as shorthand for white-non-Hispanic), and I benefit from white privilege every day of my life. I was raised as what I'll call "culturally white". But I'm ~1/4 non-white (Sephardic (Hispanic) Jewish, with a small amount of Native American). And I still am not sure how to acknowledge and appreciate those parts of my heritage without coming off as a fake or as trivializing the experiences of PoC, especially since my "minority quantum" isn't even all one thing.
And then there's the whole weirdness-of-Ashkenazi-Jewish-racial-identity part, where Ashkenazim are generally considered to be white, but..."provisionally" might be the right word? "White with an asterisk." "White in some parts of the country." And the way that halfies are regarded in some Jewish circles, especially if they don't practice Judaism.
I bet there are plenty of works with the half-Jewish protagonist, but...there aren't even a lot of representations of ethnic Jews who are mixed Ashkenazi/Sephardi out there, let alone Ashkenazi/Sephardi/Welsh/English/Irish/Czech/German/Native American mixes.
I am worried that with this comment I am falling into the "Being [white ethnicity/white mutt] is just like being a PoC!" trap and hurting someone with my inarticulateness or carelessness, and if I have overstepped somewhere, I really and sincerely apologize. This entry resonated enough with my own identity issues that I felt compelled to comment, despite the fact that my own understanding is not quite worked out.