Are Middle Easterners considered to be 'white'?

[Anonymous]

Are white and caucasian the same?

Are people from the Middle East, like Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc considered to be 'white' by the general world population?

[Anonymous]

According to the racial categories used by the US government, yes. I think racial categories always vary by culture and country.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I believe so

[Anonymous]

Depends on their religion. If Muslim, no. If Christian, yes (unless Palestinian). If Jewish, yes except by white supremacists.

-Christian Middle Easterner who is always read as white

[Anonymous]

I thought they were considered to be Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought they were considered to be Asian.

+1

[Anonymous]

Yes they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on their religion. If Muslim, no. If Christian, yes (unless Palestinian). If Jewish, yes except by white supremacists.

-Christian Middle Easterner who is always read as white

this is bullshit. It doesn't go by religion.
Iranians for example are Muslim but are considered white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to the racial categories used by the US government, yes. I think racial categories always vary by culture and country.

Historically middle-easterners were considered to be white, and (I believe) worked to have themselves considered white. Now days the advantages in the US of being classified as non-white are quite significant and some MENA groups are pushing for a separate classification. For example: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/30/white-house-wants-add-new-racial-category-middle-eastern-people/91322064/

From the article: "Adding a box on the census form could have implications beyond racial identity. According to the White House notice, the new data could be used for a wide range of political and policy purposes, including:

• Enforcing the Voting Rights Act and drawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries;

• Establishing federal affirmative action plans and evaluating claims of employment discrimination in employment in the private sector;

• Monitoring discrimination in housing, mortgage lending and credit;

• Enforcing school desegregation policies; and

• Helping minority-owned small businesses get federal grants and loans.

Adding the classification also would help the government and independent scholars understand more about trends in health, employment and education.

"We can't even ask questions like that, because we don't have the data," said Germine Awad, an Egyptian-American and professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin."

[Anonymous]

Yes. I have a student whose family is from Syria. He's racially white.

[Anonymous]

You realize that all these categories are made up by the government? These are made up people.

[Anonymous]

Yes White/Caucasian

[Anonymous]

Yes they are.
And despite what an earlier PP said, religion is irrelevant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on their religion. If Muslim, no. If Christian, yes (unless Palestinian). If Jewish, yes except by white supremacists.

-Christian Middle Easterner who is always read as white

this is bullshit. It doesn't go by religion.
Iranians for example are Muslim but are considered white.

I'm not saying it's right, I think it's totally incoherent! But it is how I think we are perceived and treated popularly, and to some extent, how we perceive ourselves as "white" or "brown" (not census categories, in which we are simply Caucasian).

[Anonymous]

According to the US census, yes. Obviously, American racial categories can't always be neatly applied to the rest of the world. Socially speaking, there are plenty of Middle Easterners (blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, etc) who would be read as conventionally white and many others who wouldn't.