Arab American
Reader comment on item: Is There an Arab-American Race?

Submitted by Clyde Nassif (United States), Dec 26, 2005 at 01:20

First, there is only one race, the human race, with at least 5 accepted classifications-black, brown, red, white, and yellow-there are an infinite number of admixtures. Until the latter part of the 1800's, most people of Middle Eastern Ancestry-especially Arabs, were classified in non-white groups according to which characteristics of these groups they resembled most as usually determined by a person of European ancestry.

Then the anthropologists determined that from physical characteristics other than skin color-mainly measurements of various skull points, people of Middle Eastern ancestry-Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Italians, etc. should be classified as whites. Even to this day, most laypersons, in general, do not consider swarthy Middle Eastern types as white. Add to this, that most laypersons consider all Muslims to be Arab, when in reality, most Muslims are non-Arab, non-white. Most laypersons assume most white people should speak English-most Arab Americans do-most nonAmerican Arabs speak Arabic.

It is easier to identify a person of Arab descent today, then it was even a hundred years ago, because that region of the world is more stabilized. Like other subclassifications, there is plenty of admixture, do to intermarriage, rape, slavery/white slavery, war, and so on. Also, the black people of Africa, claim Egypt, Cleopatra, and King Tut as part of their black heritage in the continent of Africa, when the Egyptians, white people, claim Egypt, Cleopatra, and King Tut as part of their white heritage from conquering and settling Egypt. Although, the majority of Egyptians are classified as white, a signifigant figure by skull measurements fall into the category of admixtures of the black, brown, and white subclassification.

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