Racial/ethnic descriptions!

[Daydreamer2008]

Ok,
I understand I'm Middle Eastern which makes me white. BUT why the heck does Jefferson have EVERY single ethnic group (including pakistani, south indian, etc) but nothing to separate middle easterners? this is such crap. I can't believe we get lumped into White when we are a completely different ethnic group! Even Indians and pakistanis are considered "white" but get their own ethnic group on this app.

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[Abilene85]

Cuz all y'all are the same...kidding...kidding KIDDING.

That does seem like a bit of BS. I understand why you would be annoyed. And I can't even begin to understand why they would lump some people and not others.

Do you like to be considered white? My Middle Eastern and Indian friends call themselves "brown."

 

[VanillaBear]

Middle Easterners should have their own category...it's quite upsetting that they don't.

 

[sperola]

Wait there wasn't an other option? lol

 

[trichomoniasis]

Ok,
I understand I'm Middle Eastern which makes me white. BUT why the heck does Jefferson have EVERY single ethnic group (including pakistani, south indian, etc) but nothing to separate middle easterners? this is such crap. I can't believe we get lumped into White when we are a completely different ethnic group! Even Indians and pakistanis are considered "white" but get their own ethnic group on this app.

any chance your name will clear up any confusion with us white devils?

 

[nick_carraway]

My Israeli friend's content to classify himself as an asian. He's a nice guy so we let him.

 

[Oasis]

FYI middle eastern is not an ethnicity its only a geographic location. Also, pakistanis and Indians are not classified as "white"-people of the Indian subcontinent are always classified as Asians and then ussually allowed to specifiy "Indian" or "pakistani" etc...

 

[Abilene85]

This post has been with me all day, so now I'm just going to ask my question at the risk of possibly sounding slightly racist. When did Indian/Middle Eastern become "white?"

Can someone please enlighten my white mind?

 

[TheRealMD]

This post has been with me all day, so now I'm just going to ask my question at the risk of possibly sounding slightly racist. When did Indian/Middle Eastern become "white?"

Can someone please enlighten my white mind?

Er... I thought if you were Indian, you'd just claim to be Asian (since it IS Asia after all!)

Besides, this really isn't about race as much as continential identification, but I really don't want to go there.

 

[Auron]

This post has been with me all day, so now I'm just going to ask my question at the risk of possibly sounding slightly racist. When did Indian/Middle Eastern become "white?"

Can someone please enlighten my white mind?

I'll enthrall you with my acumen: It didn't. I don't know what that guy is on. As an Indian I have to say what the hell are you talking about op.

 

[munnabhai]

I'll enthrall you with my acumen: It didn't. I don't know what that guy is on. As an Indian I have to say what the hell are you talking about op.

North Indians share the same Aryan lineage as Europeans. From Wikipedia:

"The Caucasian race (sometimes called the Caucasoid race) is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as, "relating to a broad division of humankind covering peoples from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa" or "white-skinned; of European origin" or "relating to the region of the Caucasus in SE Europe."[1] It is subdivided into Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean sub-races.[2]. Skin, hair, and eye complexion vary from very fair(e.g. in Scandinavia) to dark brown(e.g. in India)."

While using the term "caucasian" is appropriate to describe Indian people, calling them "white" (which isn't even an ethnicity but rather a characteristic of the amount of melanin in their skin) stems from ignorance.

Middle Eastern people should be classified as such or as "Caucasian".

 

[Abilene85]

Thanks. If I hadn't been too lazy to wiki this I guess I would have just figured it out for myself. So many people figure caucasian and white are exactly the same thing. Even on applications, sometimes I check caucasian and sometimes white. There was just something about the first line of this thread "I understand I'm Middle Eastern which makes me white" that sounded a little off to me.

 

[fightingon]

just an interesting point in case people are interested...Indians were classified as Caucasian in the US before 1923, but because of subsequent anti-immigration policies, they were reclassified as "Asian" so they would fall under the same harsh quotas and restrictions on immigration and land ownership that were faced by other Asians.