I posted the following on a forum someone started on race, a concept I think everyone knows has no scientific foundation. I thought I’d share it here. I’m not trying to answer everything about race, just to give an alternative perspective.

Talking about race is sure to lead to nonsense

Some people call Judaism a race. When some people hear my father was born and raised Jewish and my mother was born and raised Lutheran they say I’m not Jewish because the rules of Judaism say it goes on the mother’s side. If they hear my mother converted they then say I’m Jewish.

Boom! They say my race changed based on a ceremony my mother performed years before I was born. Who knew you could change race so easily?

Maybe if it turned out she missed a step in the ceremony my race would change again.

You could say it’s just my religion that changed, but then I say I’m not part of the religion because I don’t believe in it. They say, still, it’s where you came from, you’re still Jewish. So I say, but she didn’t come from that tradition for one thing and her parents didn’t like her change one bit; they certainly participated zero in that tradition; and for another, do you really want to align yourself with historical people who call people Jewish who say they aren’t? I mean, what historical figures come to mind as telling people they were Jewish based on ancestors?

So maybe you should say I’m biracial. After all, my mom’s side is pretty Aryan, if you want to talk race, which I don’t, but people keep calling me Jewish when I’m not, so what are they talking about if not religion or tradition? Then I’m the only blond-haired blue-eyed biracial person I know of.

Even the original post talks about “where someone is from,” in which case your race changes based on your home. Then I’m American, which I don’t think anyone counts as a race. Unless you mean where your ancestors are from. Last I checked about a million years worth of my homo sapien ancestors came from Africa with some slight variation in the last few percent of that time.

Or maybe the concept of race just doesn’t make sense.

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