I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about the history of the concept of "whiteness" as a demographic category. The first time the concept of race was legally codified, it was in support of slavery. Originally, the law was that only non-Christians could be enslaved for life, but when a lot of African slaves converted to Christianity, the plantation owners whose fortunes depended on brutal, inescapable slavery changed the law to say that only non-whites could be enslaved for life. Before then, people defined their identity more by religion or nationality.
And as I said, historically, whiteness has been defined in terms of which groups it excludes, which is why, as Nerys Myk said, there have been times in history when society has defined groups such as Jews, Irish, Italians, and Poles as "non-white." So I find it an arbitrary, artificial category whose fundamental intent has historically been to discriminate, and that is why I don't like to define myself that way. Like I said, I'm talking about the category, not about people, because people can choose whether or not they identify with that mindset. I'm not critiquing a "race" of people, because that "race" doesn't exist except as a manufactured cultural construct, one whose impact on society has historically been negative.
