Anonymous wrote:A friend of mine who married a (white) Jewish guy told me this week that she considers herself a minority now.
She is white, raised Catholic, born in the US to white parents also born in the US. She did not convert to Judaism when they married and does not intend to (considers herself an atheist).
She says his minority status applies to her now because they are a “mixed-ethnicity” couple, and because their kids will be Jewish.
What am I missing here? This seems insane to me. If I were her spouse I’d find it personally offensive. Is this something other people do?? Have never heard of it before.
In addition to the whole idea being ridiculous, the bolded is actually incorrect since she isn't Jewish on any level, hasn't converted, etc. and Judaism is usually a matrilineal descent situation. Her kids are white American kids with an atheist mom and what sounds like a non-observant Jewish dad.
If they're raising their kids in the faith, great for them, but it doesn't change the way these things work. You don't get to adopt the ethnicity of the person you marry. My husband is ethnically different than me, and while I completely agree that his ethnicity has been transmitted to our kids, who are darker than me (like him) and have more physical ethnic features of his people and fewer of mine, I am not suddenly magically the same ethnicity as him because we are married. I remain a white American woman of Scandinavian descent.