Thread by @mcpli

Since it’s Rosh Hashanah, a map of where the Jewish population of the United States lives.

But since this map is up, I’ll also use it as a chance to address a pet peeve of mine about people writing about demographics. A short thread 🧵 1/

worldpopulationreview.com/states/jewish-…

And that pet peeve is actually two. First, it’s the assumption that what is happening in states like Texas and California eventually plays out elsewhere. And second, it’s that our current understandings of ethnicity remain constant over the long term. 2/

And, sure, both might happen. But then again, they might not. As the map of the Jewish population of the US shows, 100 years after the end of mass Jewish immigration to the United States, a huge part of the Jewish population remained close to where their ancestors started. 3/

The same is also true of the country’s Italian population. Sure, you can find Italian Americans everywhere but the dense concentrations remain in New York, New Jersey, New England, etc. 4/

And it’s entirely possible that something similar happens to Latinos and Asians today. 5/

As to the second point, that’s really the giant unknown. It’s entirely possible that over the long term, current notions of ethnicity remain in place. But then again, there is certainly some reason for thinking they might not. 6/

After all, groups that many thought would always remain distinct like Jews and Italians have - mostly - become indistinguishable. And the relatively high rate of intermarriage for Asians and Latinos at least suggests that might be a similar path. Or it might not. 7/

My pet peeve is that we don’t know, and some acknowledgement of that would be good/helpful/prudent before making grand claims. 8/