God, the comments. The Klanners really are out in droves today. Can't you guys go back to your COVID-ridden rallies and leave decent humans alone?

I reported them to Medium, and I suggest any enlightened reader of these words do the same.

Anyway, you're absolutely right. "White" and "Black" and indeed "race" isn't any sort of scientific thing — it's a sociological thing. If society identifies a person as Black, all the DNA tests in the world won't change anyone's mind. Indeed, biology does not recognize "race" in the sense we commonly use it at all.

I didn't learn the science until I was fairly old but I was very lucky to be taught by my parents to treat each person as an individual. It's particularly remarkable since my father had considerable racism in his heart that would boil out sometimes, and yet he was scrupulously careful to teach me to be better than he was. On the other hand, my mother was a naturally compassionate person who naturally believed in the dignity of all humans.

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You might be interested to learn that many modern scholars believe that Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby, is intended by Fitzgerald to be a racially black man "passing" as white. (Or it’s quite likely you knew this before I did.)

I have not had a chance to re-read Gatsby since I learned of this theory, but it explains a lot of puzzling little details.

Thanks for a great article!