Why are people of Middle Eastern descent considered "white" on the census?

[Zioneer]

I don't have any problem with Middle Eastern folks, but I'm curious as to why they're considered "white" on the census. And are all Middle Easterners considered white, or only those from the nations that American society considers "white" like Lebanon? Would Sudan be considered "Middle Eastern", for example? And I know that many of the census classifications of the past were ridiculously racist, so how did Middle Easterners get lumped in with whites? Surely the racists of old would've come up with some bigoted classification for those from the Middle East?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

All people from the Middle East (and North Africa) are considered "white" by the Census. If you're going to invent a fake race that somehow includes Sicilians, Norwegians, and Bulgarians, you might as well lump Persians in there too. There's a reason why the concept of "white" is entirely a   Western Hemisphere one.

[muon2]

All people from the Middle East (and North Africa) are considered "white" by the Census. If you're going to invent a fake race that somehow includes Sicilians, Norwegians, and Bulgarians, you might as well lump Persians in there too. There's a reason why the concept of "white" is entirely a   Western Hemisphere one.

Land-based trade routes from Europe were controlled by Arabs and other non-Europeans in the Middle Ages. When the European explorers traveled by ship to bypass the land routes they encountered people who were dramatically different they they expected, and by skipping so much land in between they saw none of the slow variation in appearance the Arabs  or Persians saw for instance going from the Mediterranean to the Congo or from the Middle East to China. The physical differences seen by those European explorers became the basis for racial classifications.

[Hatman 🍁]

Makes more sense than lumping South Asians with East Asians. That's what really bugs me.

[Horus]

Because the census is utterly clueless on how to properly classify people. The Canadian system is far superior.

[eric82oslo]

Because the census is utterly clueless on how to properly classify people. The Canadian system is far superior.

How's the Canadian system?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Because they are. Earl is right about the dumber part. South Asians are actually technically "white" too, they are also Caucasian.

[Indy Texas]

As both a bona fide Middle Eastern person by virtue of my father's Palestinian upbringing and a bona fide White Person by virtue of my mother's ancestors being born in England, I will explain.

There is no such thing as an "Arab" race or ethnicity. People identify as Arab by virtue of speaking Arabic as their primary language.

This is Camille Chamoun, a former president of Lebanon.


This is Sultan Qaboos of Oman.


Both of these men would be considered Arabs. They are of different religions (Chamoun was a Catholic; Qaboos is a Muslim); they come from different geographies (Chamoun from the eastern Mediterranean coast; Qaboos from the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula); they come from different cultures (Chamoun from the sedentary, citified Lebanese society; Qaboos from the rural, tribal Omani society). The one thing they share in common and that makes them both Arabs is the fact that they both speak/spoke the Arabic language as their primary language.

The Arabs who emigrated to the United States tended to come from the same part of the Middle East as Camille Chamoun, tended to look more like Camille Chamoun than the Omani Sultan, and tended to come from a religious and cultural tradition more like Chaumoun's than Qaboos'. That is a cultural tradition rooted in the port cities of the Eastern Mediterranean (Beirut, Athens, Istanbul, Malta, Jaffa) and in Eastern and Catholic Christianity; these are people who arguably have more in common with Greeks, Italians, Albanians and some Slavic cultures than they do with their neighbors in Saudi Arabia or Yemen.

And these are the people who ultimately gave us, for better or worse...

Both John Sununus.


Vincent Sheheen.


Tareq Salahi.


George Michael's incestuous love interest.


And (for worse), Johnny Manziel.


So if you want to tell your average, run-of-the-mill American that none of those people are white, you're going to send white people into a downward spiral of conspiracy-fueled paranoia where we can never really know who the "real" white people are who are safe and we can trust and who all these dangerous impostor white people are.

[Hatman 🍁]

Because the census is utterly clueless on how to properly classify people. The Canadian system is far superior.

How's the Canadian system?

It's not perfect either, but:

The census (actually, the "National Household Survey" [NHS] which is an optional form that 1/3 of Canadians get along with the mandatory census) asks whether or not you're a visible minority. If you're not a visible minority you're either White or Aboriginal. (because I guess calling the original inhabitants of this country minorities is offensive?)

If you are a visible minority, you may select one  the following options:

South Asian
Chinese
Black
Filipino
Latin American
Arab
Southeast Asian
West Asian
Korean
Japanese
Visible minority, n.i.e. (write ins)
Multiple visible minorities


Also, the NHS has a separate question asking about ethnicity.

[jimrtex]

I don't have any problem with Middle Eastern folks, but I'm curious as to why they're considered "white" on the census. And are all Middle Easterners considered white, or only those from the nations that American society considers "white" like Lebanon? Would Sudan be considered "Middle Eastern", for example? And I know that many of the census classifications of the past were ridiculously racist, so how did Middle Easterners get lumped in with whites? Surely the racists of old would've come up with some bigoted classification for those from the Middle East?

What past census classifications do you consider to have been ridiculously racist?

What government purpose would be served by having more specific information.  For voting rights purposes, language is more useful.

[Person Man]

Because the census is utterly clueless on how to properly classify people. The Canadian system is far superior.

How's the Canadian system?

It's not perfect either, but:

The census (actually, the "National Household Survey" [NHS] which is an optional form that 1/3 of Canadians get along with the mandatory census) asks whether or not you're a visible minority. If you're not a visible minority you're either White or Aboriginal. (because I guess calling the original inhabitants of this country minorities is offensive?)

If you are a visible minority, you may select one  the following options:

South Asian
Chinese
Black
Filipino
Latin American
Arab
Southeast Asian
West Asian
Korean
Japanese
Visible minority, n.i.e. (write ins)
Multiple visible minorities


Also, the NHS has a separate question asking about ethnicity.

..That really works for me. The only reason why race is an issue is because people used to treat people unjustly for looking different. Then again, I heard of this woman attorney who was blond but was an eight black yet self-identified as black.

[Lief 🗽]

It's almost as if racial classifications are completely arbitrary and artificial constructions...

[Хahar 🤔]

Because they are. Earl is right about the dumber part. South Asians are actually technically "white" too, they are also Caucasian.

In what way are South Asians Caucasian? South Asians have no substantial ancestry from the Caucasus and speak no Caucasian languages.

[muon2]

Because they are. Earl is right about the dumber part. South Asians are actually technically "white" too, they are also Caucasian.

In what way are South Asians Caucasian? South Asians have no substantial ancestry from the Caucasus and speak no Caucasian languages.

Today the linkage comes from the commonality of Indo European languages. Originally there was a classification that grouped ethnic groups based on cranial features, and a hypothesis that an original population was from the Caucasus, but that has been replaced by modern genetic studies.

[Sol]

Because they are. Earl is right about the dumber part. South Asians are actually technically "white" too, they are also Caucasian.

In what way are South Asians Caucasian? South Asians have no substantial ancestry from the Caucasus and speak no Caucasian languages.

Today the linkage comes from the commonality of Indo European languages. Originally there was a classification that grouped ethnic groups based on cranial features, and a hypothesis that an original population was from the Caucasus, but that has been replaced by modern genetic studies.

By that logic, Middle Easterners actually shouldn't be considered White. Nor should Hungarians or Basques.

[minionofmidas]

Because the census is utterly clueless on how to properly classify people. The Canadian system is far superior.

How's the Canadian system?

It's not perfect either, but:

The census (actually, the "National Household Survey" [NHS] which is an optional form that 1/3 of Canadians get along with the mandatory census) asks whether or not you're a visible minority. If you're not a visible minority you're either White or Aboriginal. (because I guess calling the original inhabitants of this country minorities is offensive?)

Because Canada does its worst to make them invisible.

(Or because that's dealt with in a separate question.)

South Asians used to be classified as White by the Census guidelines once. The reason they aren't anymore is that so many of them checked the wrong boxes. Quite a few Middle Easterners also do.

[muon2]

Because they are. Earl is right about the dumber part. South Asians are actually technically "white" too, they are also Caucasian.

In what way are South Asians Caucasian? South Asians have no substantial ancestry from the Caucasus and speak no Caucasian languages.

Today the linkage comes from the commonality of Indo European languages. Originally there was a classification that grouped ethnic groups based on cranial features, and a hypothesis that an original population was from the Caucasus, but that has been replaced by modern genetic studies.

By that logic, Middle Easterners actually shouldn't be considered White. Nor should Hungarians or Basques.

I would never claim any logic in racial classification.

[King of Kensington]

There is no such thing as an "Arab" race or ethnicity. People identify as Arab by virtue of speaking Arabic as their primary language.

It's really a pan-ethnic category, like Hispanic origin.  Many Americans seem to think "Hispanic" is a race, whether they're mestizo, black, or purely of European Spanish descent etc. 

[King of Kensington]

It's not perfect either, but:

The census (actually, the "National Household Survey" [NHS] which is an optional form that 1/3 of Canadians get along with the mandatory census) asks whether or not you're a visible minority. If you're not a visible minority you're either White or Aboriginal. (because I guess calling the original inhabitants of this country minorities is offensive?)

If you are a visible minority, you may select one  the following options:

South Asian
Chinese
Black
Filipino
Latin American
Arab
Southeast Asian
West Asian
Korean
Japanese
Visible minority, n.i.e. (write ins)
Multiple visible minorities


Also, the NHS has a separate question asking about ethnicity.

Note that for Latin American, Arab and West Asian categories - which are the most problematic - if you also say you're white you are NOT counted as a visible minority.  The number of "racial" Latin Americans, Arabs and West Asians is quite a bit smaller than the number of "ethnic" ones, while Chinese, Filipino and South Asian counts aren't that different.

One thing that's quite notable for Arab Canadians is that more recent immigrants and Muslims tend to identify more "racially" than Arab Christians who are generally accepted as white.  For instance mostly Christian Lebanese Canadians - who have a longer history in the country - mostly do not identify as visible minorities.  The Moroccan population is heavily Jewish and few Moroccan Jews identify as nonwhite.

Armenian Canadians (overwhelmingly Christian and more established) are "supposed" to say they're "West Asian" but 90% of them say they're white.