Racial identity functions as practice and intention, not just appearance

Evidence

Unlike Judaism, Jewishness had to be, emphatically, stronger than human will and human creative potential. It had to be located at the level of natural law (the kind of law that ought to be discovered, and then taken account of and exploited for human benefit, but which cannot be wished away, tampered with, or neglected – at least, nut without terrible consequences). … The product of conversion – be it religious or cultural – is not the change, but loss of quality. On the other side of conversion lurks a void, not another identity. The convert loses his identity without acquiring anything instead. Man is before he acts; nothing he does may change what he is. This is, roughly, the philosophical essence of racism. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 179 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: If race is social, race is an amalgam of practices, not proxies like phenotype — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 89; Racial ascription can override visual passing and self-identification alike — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526; Playful performance can denaturalize links between phenotype and ethnic identity. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 99 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Racism locates identity beyond will so conversion yields loss not change #complicates (0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 179