Dear Fellow (((White People))) Part Three

I still remember my Grandmother's funeral. For a variety of deeply personal reasons. But one thing I remember is finding out that I could never be buried in a Jewish cemetery because I was a Christian. For that matter, my Father could never be buried with his parents because he had accepted Jesus as the Messiah.

That wasn't the end of my experiences with being Jewish but not-Jewish. But frankly, it would have been enough. My Gentile friends back in West Virginia might joke about me being a Jew, but they accepted me for who I was. To be frank, they loved me. Outside of my immediate family (who I must stress, never gave me anything but love), the Jewish community had nothing but contempt for me.

I don't want to single out the Jews. The other parts of my extended family also viewed me and my siblings as different. But they also never threw me out of my goddamn Grandparents' apartment while my Grandfather was grieving. They also never told me I could never be buried with my family.

Now, I'm venting this part of my personal history because it's something I want to get off my chest. But I'm also venting it because it touches on why Jews sometimes view themselves as White and sometimes as Non-White.

When I was in High School, I was the most ethnically diverse person in my class. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's not that unusual of a situation for a Jew. There are times when all of the people around you look at you and say, "You're different because you're not White."

At the same time, when I was in University, I got the same lambasting about how I was an Evil White Male from my Professors that the most Scotch-Irish motherfucker in West Virginia ever got. There are times when all of the people around you look at you and say, "You're 110% White."

I've lived in Japan for over five years, and in the entire time I've been here, no one has seen me as anything other than White. I've even been called Blond on multiple occasions, which is something that could really only happen in Asia. I'm about as Blond as Adolph Hitler, although according to your local Rabbi, I'm also just as welcome to sit shiva.

So what I'm saying is, I kind of get it when my fellow Jews (who 100% do not accept me as Jewish) sometimes refer to themselves as White and sometimes as Not-White. That's just part of growing up Jewish. To a White Supremacist, you're not White. To the Black, Asian, or Hispanic neighbors across the street, you're completely White. And to the State of Israel, it kind of depends on whether or not you accept Jesus as the Messiah.

Okay, we'll finish this up next time.