1/ I understand why people of colour get annoyed when white Jews say they’re not white

But I also understand why white Jews may feel conflicted about being called white when white supremacists don’t see them as white

Part of the reason this confusion exists is because...

2/ ... “whiteness”, as we understand it, is a relic of colonialism

Before European colonisation took off, the idea of “whiteness” didn’t really exist - people were described by the area they came from, not as “white” or “black” etc

For example, if you look at Roman...

3/ ... texts, you don’t really come across people as being described as black - they’re referred to where they come from

i.e Ethiopians are referred to as Ethiopians, not “black people”

Then came European colonialism (16th century onwards) and slavery, and...

4/ ... colonisers - with pale skin - started referring to themselves as “white” to separate them from the colonised, who they viewed as inferior

Along with terms like “mulatto” to describe someone who is “black” and “white”, and the “one drop rule”, “whiteness” was created

5/ However, as European history shows, Jews were never truly seen as citizens of the European countries they settled in - they were always treated as an ethnic “other”

i.e of being “white” meant also being Christian - which was exported to colonies, wiping out ancient religions

6/ Jews were always treated as an ethnic “other” - intermittently chased and expelled out of countries for millennia in Europe

Fast-forward to today, and this legacy remains

White supremacists don’t see Jews as truly “white” because the creation of “whiteness” is not...

7/ ... simply just about skin colour

And the legacy of this ideology today is white supremacists and neo-Nazis seeing Jews as an “other” - on the same level with “Black” people

A key part of understanding white supremacy is understanding where it comes from

8/ So yes, white Jews may have “white” skin and are therefore aesthetically “white” - and get the benefits from that in a society that is biased in favour of white-skinned people

But when white supremacists say Jews aren’t “white” they’re harking back to the origins of...

9/ ... the colonial categorisation of people into “black” or “white” - a categorisation that was created in a society that never saw Jews as equals

The advent of “white” superiority was not designed to include Jews

10/ There’s more to all this, and I could talk about it all day - and there are many historians than can explain this in more detail and more eloquently

But understanding that a lot of what we think about “race” is constructed is a key part of understanding contemporary society