Race

This week in class we talked about how racism isn't biological, it's more of a social construction. I never really thought about this way, but it's definitley true. People can not all fit into neat categories, just like it was impossible to group the different balls into three categories when Sal started to add more- it simply didn't work. Many people, especially in America are not just simply black or white or asian - we're a mixture of races. Although my family is completely European-American on both sides, it's still hard for me to classify myself because my family's mixture of religions - which I consider a component of race. I was raised Jewish, but only my mom is Jewish and my dad is not. Everybody is so shocked to hear that I'm Jewish because I don't have a Jewish last name and I resemble my dad so I don't have the stereotypical Jewish traits. I always explain by saying I'm half Jewish, but that's not really true, it's the only religion I've ever practiced. These things have altered society's perception for what I "should" be. Just like race, religion is not biological and we should not categorize people by simply looking at them.