My American friend sent me this. To be honest I find it kinda weird how in America you have to choose your race when it comes to almost everything Including Job applications. I mean that shouldn’t Matter in my opinion 😅It should be either citizen or non citizen. But Anyways, what I find weirder is why are Arabs and middle eastern people are classified as “white” ? (genuinely asking)
Race and ethnicity are different classifications. "Race” is usually associated with biology and linked with physical characteristics such as skin color or hair texture. “Ethnicity” is linked with cultural expression and identification. Both are social constructs.
In America, the question is asked to provide information to maintain equal hiring practices.
It should be noted, the question of race is almost always optional and doesn't have to be answered.
This is the first time I've seen no choice of "other". I'm multi-racial, but I might want to let that be known rather than to be lumped in with "no response". This looks like an outdated form. Even in my youth I always saw an option for "other".
People from the Caucasus area in the Middle East are mostly white (it's where they get the word "Caucasian" from), but Arabic Middle Eastern people are generally not viewed as being white. The form is confusing as written, and really shouldn't be needed at all. I had called myself white/Caucasian for most of my life until I found out from a DNA test that I was actually multi-racial. The fact that you can choose to call yourself what you feel further muddles the information and makes the question unnecessary and pretty much useless.
@DragonFruit people from the Caucasus are not viewed as white at all. Georgians get called black by Russians and Armenians were attacked by people after 9/11 for "looking Arab".
@basilfawlty89 Armenians aren't Arab, though...and not being treated as white doesn't mean that they are ethnically not white. Northern Italians often treated Southern Italians as non-white, but a large percentage of them are ethnically white (though often darker in complexion than their Northern counterparts). It only accentuates the fact that race is more of a concept than a technical difference.
@DragonFruit Armenians aren't Arabs, no, but in terms of phenotype they look similar to Iranians and Arabs. Genetically as well, Armenians are closest to Iranians. Even linguistically, Armenian and Persian is similar, though different branches of Indo-European.
I've never seen one like this one before. It's usually "white/caucasian". I'll usually selected the box where it says "other" if it's on the application.
@CopperCicada I don’t care either tbh but I genuinely wanna know why Arabs are classified as white in the American system. I mean I could get why the Levantine Arabs are considered to be white And Egyptians Moroccans etc to be African because theyr in Africa What about uae Kuwait Saudi etc? Lmao they’r our of place If anything it makes sense for them to be under the Asian classification
it's a reaction to the race discrimination that went on for decades. by tracking the groups (as crazy as they are) if someone wanted to bring a lawsuit they would have the statistics as to how many people of the ethnic groups are applying vs how many are hired.
the government can also review the stats and in some cases tell a business they need to recruit underrepresented ethnic groups.
Its self report. You can supposedly be whatever you want to be. there are people who are far whiter than i am who claim to be black. that whole race thing on applications is useless. you want to know someones race, draw some blood. LOL
@Moon3624 they might fit under the category of Other. Or, there could be a separate category for middle eastern people. im just throwing out possibilities.
SW-User
Interesting I’ve usually only seen “white/Caucasian” But regardless, the race section of applications should be completely done away with
@SW-User yeah I think this question shouldn’t even be on applications but I don’t get why Arabs and middle eastern in general are classified as white lmao
SW-User
@Moon3624 that’s definitely interesting. No telling who generated the application
Arabs and other Middle Easterners are legally white, but socially not treated as white.
It's a long complicated history. I mean technically of you're Mexican, you should tick Native American as that's the majority of our DNA, but many are told to tick white cause we're mixed.
