According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census
And I quote, a white person is “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as “White” or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.”
I find this to be quite interesting, as (1) this means that our government is currently bombing “white” nations full of “white” people and (2) the Middle East is just a Euro-centric definition of a geographical point where the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe meet, and (3) it wasn’t that long ago that the Irish, Germans, Italians, Polish, Ashkenazi Jews, etc.—all European immigrants that are considered to be white today—were (legally) considered to be black. The social construction of whiteness is ever changing, no?
Thoughts?
June 7th, 2012 10 notes #labels #classification #race #ethnicity #white #european #middle eastern #north african #language #social constructs #queue
