I still contend that Marjorie Taylor Greene is just Dog the Bounty Hunter in drag. I mean, has anyone seen the two of them in the same place at the same time?
Man, I say this a lot and I know it comes across standoffish, but... US ethnic categorizations seem bonkers to me.
What does "half Jewish half Irish" even mean? Isn't that a Jewish person from Ireland? That would count as fully both things. What are the other two halves?
This is why I have to think about the immigration form for ten minutes each time I get through customs in the US, it's all "was any of your grandparents a smurf?" and "are you latino and/or lactose intolerant?" and stuff like that. It makes no sense.
You can be raised by one Jewish parent and one Other parent and still not be a follower of Judaism. You might still have a Jewish cultural heritage and place in the world despite differing theological views.
People can be ethnically Jewish or religiously Jewish and they are separate identities. Historically, religiously jewish people tended to only marry other religiously jewish people, leading to the formation of a jewish ethnicity over time. For many, these identities are closely intertwined, for others they have both but view them separately. And for many others still, they only fit into one category or the other.
Irish, in contrast, is only an ethnicity but not a religion. (Unless you count certain sects of Celtic Paganism, but that's usually not what people mean)
If one parent is predominantly of Jewish heritage and the other of Irish heritage, then their child might identify as half-jewish-half-irish.
Genetically speaking, they are likely less than 50% of each because that would imply that each parent was completely and totally 100% their respective ethnicity genetically, which is (if possible) very very unlikely and realistically not 100% strictly defined.
People like to categorize things, including categories. For some, a part of their identity is based on the ethnic categories they fit themselves into, and some group these categories under one subsection of their identity, and assign weights to the different components of that category.
I love the funny things our pattern seeking brains do in order to quantify the unquantifiable and to better establish a sense of belonging and self in this amorphous and crazy society we're all a part of. What's really great is that none of what I've said is even universally true. It's just (from my observation) the most common way I've seen all these categories combined. If you disagree, you're completely free to do so, and neither of us are wrong until we start using numbers and statistics in our argument
Wonderfully put, kind internet-stranger-sir. I have done the same observations and conclusions. Now we both can add a +1 on the drawer "this specific observation might be objective reality". And due to the +1 the unquantifiable became a tiny bit more quantifiable. Even though there is no clear numerical target. Which also makes it totally useless to add a +1 😊
Is it just the Jewish part that you don't get? The US has so many different active cultures going on in the same spaces that knowing someone's ethnic background can tell you a lot about them and their family. I'm sure some people want to know because they're racist, but for most people it's just a cultural shorthand. Knowing someone is Cuban rather than Puerto Rican, or half Spanish and half Irish tells you what kinds of experiences they might have had, what comfort foods they're likely to eat, how they're likely to celebrate their holidays. Stuff like that. Especially if one of their cultural identities is one that you share, or frequently share the same spaces with, you've probably just found a whole lot of commonalities with that person. Older people might ask. In my experience younger people generally won't. So either it's obvious to you or they tell you or you might not know at all.
From a governmental standpoint, they keep track of different statistics based on ethnicity, supposedly so they can make sure they're not failing any groups of people with representation, healthcare outcomes, policing, etc. It obviously doesn't always work, but that's supposed to be why the government is interested.
Aw, you guys are gonna make me answer this seriously, aren't you?
No, it's not the Jewish part that I don't get. I have been around enough to understand that Wilson is implying that she has some (presumably) Ashkenazi and some Irish ancestry, and I am self-aware enough to understand that she would sound insane if she put it that way.
The fact that she's calling it out as a shorthand for common cultural ground is the part that is strange, let alone the persistent hangup with ancestry and the weird assumption that culture is somehow genetic. I was just trying to break it down gently by being facetious about it.
It's weird, it's highly specific to American culture, and yes, I do get the very deep roots in colonialism that lead to this outcome. It's just weird to me that's where it landed and how often Americans seem to think it's universal when it's actually pretty unusual.
I was not kidding about the census categorizations that get repurposed on immigration forms, though. They are full of apples and oranges in all sorts of arrangements and I have never once felt I fit on any of the categories or that the categories themselves make any sense.
Americans are all about ethnicities like that, such as “I’m half Polish and half German on my mother’s side” or “my family is Italian” though technically they’re from Long Island or Wisconsin or something. Almost nobody describes their heritage as just “American”.
I’m America they think white people come from some mountains in Armenia or something. The same classification system was invented in the 19th Century and also lists “mongoloids” as an actual race of humanity, in earnest.
Radcliff probably took his inspiration from Harry Potter, since it was a global sensation at the time and literally every kid read them.
Except me. I thought I was too old, and thus too cool, to be reading Harry Potter. So I didn't read it till I was like 23, and significantly less cool.
I never read them as they were after my time too. But when I was 25 I was driving through the middle of nowhere in Oregon and saw a book in the road. Turned around, stopped and picked it up, and it was the first Harry Potter. I read it. It was okay.
Any version of Miracle on 34th Street is gonna be a no from me, dawg. Love the actor, but that dumpster fire of a plot needs to be relegated to the dustbin of history.
So wait, how does a nickel allergy work? Like, if they rake your leaves and you're like "thanks a bunch, here's some change for your hard work", do they die Killer Bean style?
It's a contact allergy, so mostly it just makes you break out in a rash if you wear jewelry or work with tools that have been plated in nickel. It takes time before you break out, although people instantly falling over after getting a handful of change would be hilarious to see.
Yeah my Mum has it and has to have her shirt tucked in her pants as the buttons often contain nickel.
Like you say she gets a red round rash if she forgets.
It itches and causes a rash that gets worse with prolonged exposure. I can't even tolerate surgical steel and many gold "hypoallergenic" pieces because those bitches still use nickel as part of the alloy.
It's in all sorts of things. Buttons on jeans, zippers, tools, wire, eyeglasses, and obviously jewelry.
It takes an hour or two of direct contact to start itching and getting raised bumps, less time if it is low quality metal like uncoated wire or something. Prolonged contact greater than a few hours leads to sores and it gets really really itchy and gross from there on out. Stupid jeans.
How people deal with it is just avoid metal things as much as possible because you never know if nickel is mixed in. For metal jewelry you can pay a pretty penny for higher purity metals with a much lower concentration of nickel (hard to be completely nickel free due to natural impurities) or just wear silicone/resin/leather jewelry.
Jeans though....those buttons are gonna get you. Most people paint the inside button with nail polish but that shit rubs off quickly. I just make sure I'm wearing at least 2 layers of barrier fabric between my skin and the jeans (1 layer can be pretty permeable).