White is a
racialized classification of people and a
skin color
Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents and or individu ...
specifier, generally used for people of
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as "White" in reference to their skin color predates this notion and is occasionally found in
Greco-Roman ethnography
;Pre-Hellenistic Classical Greece
*Homer
*Anaximander
*Hecataeus of Miletus
* Massaliote Periplus
* Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC)
*Herodotus
;Hellenistic period
*Pytheas (died c. 310 BC)
*''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' (3rd or 4th century B ...
and other ancient or medieval sources, but these societies did not have any notion of a White or pan-European race. The term "White race" or "White people", defined by their
light skin
Light skin is a human skin color that has a base level of eumelanin pigmentation that has adapted to environments of low UV radiation. Light skin is most commonly found amongst the native populations of Europe and East Asia as measured through s ...
among other physical characteristics, entered the major
European languages
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Rom ...
in the later seventeenth century, when the concept of a "unified White" achieve universal acceptance in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, in the context of
racialized
In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is a political process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization often arises out of th ...
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and unequal
social status
Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. Stat ...
in the European colonies. Scholarship on
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
distinguishes the modern concept from pre-modern descriptions, which focused on physical complexion rather than race. Prior to the
modern era
The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...
, no European peoples regarded themselves as "White", but rather defined their race, ancestry, or ethnicity in terms of their
nationality
Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...
.
Contemporary
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s and other scientists, while recognizing the reality of biological variation between different human populations, regard the concept of a unified, distinguishable "White race" as
socially constructed
Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theory ...
.
Physical descriptions in antiquity
![Races2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Races2.jpg)
According to anthropologist
Nina Jablonski
Nina G. Jablonski (born ) is an American anthropologist and palaeobiologist, known for her research into the evolution of skin color in humans. She is engaged in public education about human evolution, human diversity, and racism. In 2021, she ...
:
The
Ancient Egyptian (
New Kingdom
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
)
funerary text
Funerary texts or funerary literature feature in many belief systems. Its purpose is usually to provide guidance to the newly deceased or the soon-to-be-deceased about how to survive and prosper in the afterlife.
Antiquity
The most famous example ...
known as the ''
Book of Gates
The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world, corresponding to the journey of the sun through the underworld during the hours of the night ...
'' distinguishes "four groups" in a procession. These are the
Egyptians
Egyptians ( arz, المَصرِيُون, translit=al-Maṣriyyūn, ; arz, المَصرِيِين, translit=al-Maṣriyyīn, ; cop, ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, remenkhēmi) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian ...
, the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
ine and
Canaan
Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...
ite peoples or "Asiatics", the "
Nubians
Nubians () (Nobiin: ''Nobī,'' ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of the earliest cradles of c ...
" and the "fair-skinned
Libyans". The Egyptians are depicted as considerably darker-skinned than the Levantines (persons from what is now
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
and
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
) and Libyans, but considerably lighter than the Nubians (modern
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
).
The assignment of
positive and negative connotations of ''white'' and ''black'' to certain persons date to the very old age in a number of
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
, but these differences were not necessarily used in respect to skin colors. Religious conversion was sometimes described figuratively as a change in skin color.
Similarly, the ''
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
'' uses "black skin" as a metaphor for irreligiosity. Ancient Egyptians,
Mycenaean Greeks
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
and
Minoans generally depicted women as having pale or white skin while men were depicted as dark brown or tanned.
As a result, men with pale or light skin, ''leukochrōs'' (λευκόχρως, "white-skinned") could be considered weak and effeminate by
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
writers such as
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
and
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
.
According to Aristotle "Those whose skin is too dark are cowardly: witness Egyptians and the Ethiopians. Those whose skin is too light are equally cowardly: witness women. The skin color typical of the courageous should be halfway between the two."
Similarly,
Xenophon of Athens
Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies of ...
describes
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
prisoners of war as "white-skinned because they were never without their clothing, and soft and unused to toil because they always rode in carriages" and states that Greek soldiers as a result believed "that the war would be in no way different from having to fight with women."
Classicist James H. Dee states "the Greeks do not describe themselves as 'White people'—or as anything else because they had ''no'' regular word in their color vocabulary for themselves."
[James H. Dee, "Black Odysseus, White Caesar: When Did 'White People' Become 'White'?" ''The Classical Journal'', Vol. 99, No. 2. (December 2003 – January 2004), pp. 162 ''ff.''] People's skin color did not carry useful meaning; what mattered is where they lived.
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
described the
Scythian
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
Budini
The Budini (Ancient Greek: Βουδίνοι; ''Boudínoi'') was a group of people (a tribe) described by Herodotus and several later classical authors. Described as nomads living near settled Gelonians, Herodotus located them east of the Tanais ri ...
as having deep
blue eyes
Eye color is a polygenic phenotypic character determined by two distinct factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris.
In humans, the p ...
and bright
red hair
Red hair (also known as orange hair and ginger hair) is a hair color found in one to two percent of the human population, appearing with greater frequency (two to six percent) among people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and ...
and the Egyptians – quite like the
Colchians – as (, "
dark-skinned
Dark skin is a type of human skin color that is rich in melanin pigments. People with very dark skin are often referred to as "black people", although this usage can be ambiguous in some countries where it is also used to specifically refer to d ...
") and
curly-haired. He also gives the possibly first reference to the common Greek name of the tribes living south of Egypt, otherwise known as
Nubians
Nubians () (Nobiin: ''Nobī,'' ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of the earliest cradles of c ...
, which was (, "burned-faced"). Later
Xenophanes of Colophon
Xenophanes of Colophon (; grc, Ξενοφάνης ὁ Κολοφώνιος ; c. 570 – c. 478 BC) was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and critic of Homer from Ionia who travelled throughout the Greek-speaking world in early Classical An ...
described the
Aethiopia
Ancient Aethiopia, ( gr, Αἰθιοπία, Aithiopía; also known as Ethiopia) first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the upper Nile region of Sudan, as well as certain areas south of the Sahara desert. Its ...
ns as black and the
Thracians
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. ...
as having red hair and blue eyes. In his description of the Scythians,
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...
states that the cold weather "burns their white skin and turns it ruddy."
Modern racial hierarchies
The term "White race" or "White people" entered the major
European languages
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Rom ...
in the later seventeenth century, originating with the
racialization
In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is a political process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization often arises out of th ...
of
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
at the time, in the context of the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
and the enslavement of
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
in the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
.
It has repeatedly been ascribed to strains of blood, ancestry, and physical traits, and was eventually made into a subject of scientific research, which culminated in
scientific racism
Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies ...
, which was later widely repudiated by the scientific community. According to historian Irene Silverblatt, "Race thinking… made social categories into racial truths."
Bruce David Baum, citing the work of
Ruth Frankenberg
Ruth Alice Emma Frankenberg (17 September 1957 – 22 April 2007) was a British–American social scientist and feminist, known for her pioneering work in the field of whiteness studies.
Biography
Ruth Frankenberg was born in Cardiff, Wales, 17 S ...
, states, "the history of modern racist domination has been bound up with the history of how European peoples defined themselves (and sometimes some other peoples) as members of a superior 'white race'." Alastair Bonnett argues that "white identity", as it is presently conceived, is an American project, reflecting
American interpretations of
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
and history.
According to Gregory Jay, a professor of English at the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...
,
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, "East Asian peoples were almost uniformly described as White, never as yellow."
Michael Keevak's history ''Becoming Yellow'', finds that
East Asians
East Asian people (East Asians) are the people from East Asia, which consists of China, Taiwan, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, and South Korea. The total population of all countries within this region is estimated to be 1.677 billion and 21% of t ...
were redesignated as being yellow-skinned because "yellow had become a ''racial'' designation," and that the replacement of White with yellow as a description came through scientific discourse.
A social category formed by colonialism
A three-part racial scheme in color terms was used in seventeenth-century
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
under Spanish rule. Irene Silverblatt traces "race thinking" in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
to the social categories of
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
and
state formation
State formation is the process of the development of a centralized government structure in a situation where one did not exist prior to its development. State formation has been a study of many disciplines of the social sciences for a number of ...
: "White, black, and brown are abridged, abstracted versions of colonizer, slave, and colonized."
By the mid-seventeenth century, the novel term ("Spaniard") was being equated in written documents with , or "white".
In Spain's American colonies,
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
,
Native American (),
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, or
morisco
Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open p ...
ancestry formally excluded individuals from the "purity of blood" () requirements for holding any public office under the Royal Pragmatic of 1501.
Similar restrictions applied in the military, some religious orders, colleges, and universities, leading to a nearly all-white priesthood and professional stratum.
Blacks and were subject to tribute obligations and forbidden to bear arms, and black and women were forbidden to wear jewels, silk, or precious metals in early colonial Mexico and Peru.
Those (people with dark skin) and (people of mixed African and European ancestry) with resources largely sought to evade these restrictions by passing as White.
A brief royal offer to buy the privileges of whiteness for a substantial sum of money attracted fifteen applicants before pressure from White elites ended the practice.
In the
British colonies
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...
in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and the Caribbean, the designation ''English'' or ''Christian'' was initially used in contrast to Native Americans or Africans. Early appearances of White race or White people in the Oxford English Dictionary begin in the seventeenth century.
Historian Winthrop Jordan reports that, "throughout the
hirteencolonies the terms ''Christian'', ''free'', ''English'', and ''white'' were ... employed indiscriminately" in the seventeenth century as proxies for one another. In 1680, Morgan Godwyn "found it necessary to explain" to English readers that "in
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
, 'white' was 'the general name for Europeans.'"
Several historians report a shift towards greater use of ''white'' as a legal category alongside a hardening of restrictions on free or Christian blacks. ''White'' remained a more familiar term in the American colonies than in Britain well into the 1700s, according to historian
Theodore W. Allen.
Scientific racism
![Scientific racism irish](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Scientific_racism_irish.jpg)
Western studies of
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
and
ethnicity
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries developed into what would later be termed
scientific racism
Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies ...
. Prominent European scientists writing about human and natural difference included a ''white'' or ''west Eurasian'' race among a small set of human races and imputed physical, mental, or aesthetic superiority to this White category. These ideas were discredited by twentieth-century scientists.
Eighteenth century beginnings
In 1758,
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
proposed what he considered to be natural
taxonomic
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
categories of the human species. He distinguished between ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' and ''Homo sapiens europaeus'', and he later added four geographical subdivisions of humans: white
Europeans
Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...
, red
Americans
Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...
, yellow
Asians and black
Africans. Although Linnaeus intended them as objective classifications, his descriptions of these groups included cultural patterns and derogatory stereotypes.
[Sarah A. Tishkoff and Kenneth K. Kidd (2004)]
"Implications of biography of human populations for 'race' and medicine"
(), ''Nature Genetics''.
![Georgierin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Georgierin.png)
In 1775, the
naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He wa ...
asserted that "The white color holds the first place, such as is that of most European peoples. The redness of the cheeks in this variety is almost peculiar to it: at all events it is but seldom to be seen in the rest".
[Painter, Nell Irvin. Yale University. "Why White People are Called Caucasian?" 2003. 27 September 2007. ]
In the various editions of his ''On the Natural Variety of Mankind'', he categorized humans into four or five races, largely built on Linnaeus' classifications. But while, in 1775, he had grouped into his "first and most important" race "Europe, Asia this side of the Ganges, and all the country situated to the north of the Amoor, together with that part of North America, which is nearest both in position and character of the inhabitants", he somewhat narrows his "Caucasian variety" in the third edition of his text, of 1795: "To this first variety belong the inhabitants of Europe (except the Lapps and the remaining descendants of the Finns) and those of Eastern Asia, as far as the river Obi, the Caspian Sea and the Ganges; and lastly, those of Northern Africa."
[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach: ''The Anthropological Treatises''. Longman Green, London 1865, pp. 99, 265 ff.] Blumenbach quotes various other systems by his contemporaries, ranging from two to seven races, authored by the authorities of that time, including, besides Linnæus,
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste.
His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent Fr ...
,
Christoph Meiners
Christoph Meiners (31 July 1747 – 1 May 1810) was a German racialist, philosopher, historian, and writer born in Warstade. He supported the polygenist theory of human origins. He was a member of the Göttingen School of History.
Biogra ...
and
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
.
In the question of color, he conduces a rather thorough enquire, considering also factors of
diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
and
health
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
, but ultimately believes that "climate, and the influence of the soil and the temperature, together with the mode of life, have the greatest influence". Blumenbach's conclusion was, however, to proclaim all races' attribution to one single human species. Blumenbach argued that physical characteristics like skin color, cranial profile, etc., depended on environmental factors, such as
solarization
The Sabatier effect, also known as pseudo-solarization (or pseudo-solarisation) and erroneously referred to as the Sabattier effect, is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly o ...
and diet. Like other
monogenists, Blumenbach held to the "
degenerative hypothesis" of racial origins. He claimed that
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
were
Caucasian
Caucasian may refer to:
Anthropology
*Anything from the Caucasus region
**
**
** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region
*
*
*
Languages
* Northwest Caucasian l ...
inhabitants of Asia, and that other races came about by degeneration from environmental factors such as the sun and poor diet. He consistently believed that the degeneration could be reversed in a proper environmental control and that all contemporary forms of man could revert to the original
Caucasian race
The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid or Europid, Europoid) is an obsolete racial classification of human beings based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. The ''Caucasian race'' was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, de ...
.
Nineteenth and twentieth century: the "Caucasian race"
Between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, race scientists, including most
physical anthropologists
Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an e ...
classified the world's populations into
three, four, or five races, which, depending on the authority consulted, were further divided into various sub-races. During this period the
Caucasian race
The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid or Europid, Europoid) is an obsolete racial classification of human beings based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. The ''Caucasian race'' was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, de ...
, named after people of the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains,
: pronounced
* hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ,
: pronounced
* az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced
* rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ
* tr, Kafkas Dağla ...
but extending to all Europeans, figured as one of these races, and was incorporated as a formal category of both scientific research and, in countries including the United States, social classification.
There was never any scholarly consensus on the delineation between the Caucasian race, including the populations of Europe, and the Mongoloid one, including the populations of East Asia. Thus,
Carleton S. Coon (1939) included the populations native to all of
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
and
Northern Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
under the Caucasian label, while
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The storie ...
(1870) classified the same populations as Mongoloid, and
Lothrop Stoddard
Theodore Lothrop Stoddard (June 29, 1883 – May 1, 1950) was an American historian, journalist, political scientist, conspiracy theorist, white supremacist, and white nationalist. Stoddard wrote several books which advocated eugenics and sci ...
(1920) classified as "
brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...
" most of the populations of the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
,
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
and Central Asia, and counted as "white" only the European peoples and their descendants, as well as some populations in parts of
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
and the northern areas of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Some authorities, following Huxley (1870), distinguished the ''
Xanthochroi
The concept of race as a categorization of anatomically modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') has an extensive history in Europe and the Americas. The contemporary word ''race'' itself is modern; historically it was used in the sense of "nation, eth ...
'' or "light whites" of Northern Europe with the ''
Melanochroi'' or "dark whites" of the Mediterranean.
Although modern
neo-Nazis
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...
often invoke
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
iconography on behalf of
White nationalism
White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara. ''Hate Crimes''. Greenwoo ...
,
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
repudiated the idea of a unified White race, instead promoting
Nordicism
Nordicism is an ideology of racism which views the historical race concept of the "Nordic race" as an endangered and superior racial group. Some notable and seminal Nordicist works include Madison Grant's book ''The Passing of the Great Race'' ...
. In Nazi propaganda, Eastern European
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
were often referred to as
Untermensch
''Untermensch'' (, ; plural: ''Untermenschen'') is a Nazi term for non- Aryan "inferior people" who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Serbs, and later also Russians). The ...
(subhuman in English), and the relatively under-developed economic status of Eastern European countries such as Poland and the USSR was attributed to the racial inferiority of their inhabitants. Fascist Italy took the same view, and both of these nations justified their colonial ambitions in Eastern Europe on racist, anti-Slavic grounds. These nations were not alone in their view; during the
long nineteenth century
The ''long nineteenth century'' is a term for the 125-year period beginning with the onset of the French Revolution in 1789 and ending with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It was coined by Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg and British Marxist his ...
and
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
there were numerous cases - regardless the position in the
political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...
of the person - where European ethnic groups and nations labeled or treated other Europeans as members of another, somehow "inferior race". Between the enlightenment era and interwar period, the racist world views fit well into the liberal world view, and they were almost general among the liberal thinkers and politicians.
Census and social definitions in different regions
Definitions of White have changed over the years, including the official definitions used in many countries, such as the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
.
Through the mid to late twentieth century, numerous countries had formal legal standards or procedures defining racial categories (see
cleanliness of blood,
casta,
apartheid in South Africa
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
,
hypodescent
In societies that regard some races or ethnic groups of people as dominant or superior and others as subordinate or inferior, hypodescent refers to the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union to the subordinate group. The opposite pract ...
). Below are some census definitions of white, which may differ from the social definition of white within the same country. The social definition has also been added where possible.
Argentina
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, along with other areas of new settlement like Canada, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, the United States or Uruguay, is considered a country of immigrants where the vast majority originated from Europe. White people can be found in all areas of the country, but especially in the central-eastern region (
Pampas
The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil ...
), the central-western region (
Cuyo), the southern region (
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...
) and the north-eastern region (
Litoral
The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal area ...
).
White Argentines are mainly descendants of
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
who came from Europe and the Middle East in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
After the regimented Spanish colonists, waves of European settlers came to Argentina from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Major contributors included
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
(initially from
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
, Veneto and
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
, later from
Campania
Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...
, Calabria, and
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
), and
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
(most are
Galicians
Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance l ...
and
Basques
The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Bas ...
, but there are
Asturians
Asturians ( ast, asturianos) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group native to the autonomous community of Asturias, in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula.
Culture and society Heritage
Asturians are directly descended from the Astures, who wer ...
,
Cantabrians,
Catalans
Catalans (Catalan language, Catalan, French language, French and Occitan language, Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian language, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance languages, Romance ethnic group native to Cataloni ...
, and
Andalusians
The Andalusians ( es, andaluces) are a European ethnic group, native to Andalusia, an autonomous community in southern Spain. Andalusia's statute of autonomy defines Andalusians as the Spanish citizens who reside in any of the municipalitie ...
). Smaller but significant numbers of immigrants include Germans, primarily
Volga Germans
The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...
from
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, but also Germans from Germany, Switzerland, and
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
; French which mainly came from the
Occitania
Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language, Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This ...
region of France;
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
, which already conformed an important community since colonial times; Slavic groups, most of which were
Croats
The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, G ...
,
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...
,
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...
, but also
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
,
Belarusians
, native_name_lang = be
, pop = 9.5–10 million
, image =
, caption =
, popplace = 7.99 million
, region1 =
, pop1 = 600,000–768,000
, region2 =
, pop2 ...
,
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
,
Bulgarians
Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe.
Etymology
Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...
,
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
and
Montenegrins
Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro.
Genetics
Accordin ...
; Britons, mainly from England and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
; Irish who migrated due to the
Great Irish Famine
The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a ...
or prior famines and Scandinavians from
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, Denmark,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, and
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. Smaller waves of settlers from Australia and South Africa, and the United States can be traced in Argentine immigration records.
By the 1910s, after immigration rates peaked, over 30 percent of the country's population was from outside Argentina, and over half of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
' population was foreign-born.
However, the 1914 National Census revealed that around 80% of the national population were either European immigrants, their children or grandchildren.
[Rock, David. ''Argentina: 1516–1982''. University of California Press, 1987.] Among the remaining 20 percent (those descended from the population residing locally before this immigrant wave took shape in the 1870s), around a third were white. European immigration continued to account for over half the nation's population growth during the 1920s, and was again significant (albeit in a smaller wave) following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
It is estimated that Argentina received over 6 million European immigrants during the period 1857–1940.
Since the 1960s, increasing immigration from bordering countries to the north (especially from
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
and
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
, which have
Amerindian
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
and
Mestizo
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...
majorities) has lessened that majority somewhat.
Criticism of the national census state that data has historically been collected using the category of national origin rather than race in Argentina, leading to undercounting
Afro-Argentine
Afro-Argentines are people in Argentina of primarily Sub-Saharan African descent. The Afro-Argentine population is the result of people being brought over during the transatlantic slave trade during the centuries of Spanish domination in the reg ...
s and Mestizos. (Living Africa) is a black rights group in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
with the support of the
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
, financial aid from the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
and Argentina's census bureau is working to add an "Afro-descendants" category to the 2010 census. The 1887 national census was the final year where blacks were included as a separate category before it was eliminated by the government.
Australia
From 1788, when the
first British colony in Australia was founded, until the early nineteenth century, most immigrants to Australia were
English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish convicts. These were augmented by small numbers of free settlers from the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
and other European countries. However, until the mid-nineteenth century, there were few restrictions on immigration, although members of ethnic minorities tended to be assimilated into the
Anglo-Celtic
Anglo-Celtic people are descended primarily from British and Irish people. The concept is mainly relevant outside of Great Britain and Ireland, particularly in Australia, but is also used in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and South Africa, ...
populations.
People of many nationalities, including many non-white people, emigrated to Australia during the
goldrushes of the 1850s. However, the vast majority was still white and the goldrushes inspired the
first racist activism and policy, directed mainly at
Chinese immigrants
Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.
Terminology
() or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, ref ...
.
From the late nineteenth century, the
Colonial/State and later
federal governments
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
of Australia restricted all permanent immigration to the country by non-Europeans. These policies became known as the "
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...
", which was consolidated and enabled by the
Immigration Restriction Act 1901
The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which limited immigration to Australia and formed the basis of the White Australia policy which sought to exclude all non-Europeans from Australia. The law granted i ...
, but was never universally applied. Immigration inspectors were empowered to ask immigrants to take dictation from any
European language as a test for admittance, a test used in practice to exclude people from Asia, Africa, and some European and South American countries, depending on the political climate.
Although they were not the prime targets of the policy, it was not until after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
that large numbers of southern European and eastern European immigrants were admitted for the first time. Following this, the White Australia Policy was relaxed in stages: non-European nationals who could demonstrate European descent were admitted (e.g., descendants of European colonizers and settlers from
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
or
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
), as were
autochthonous
Autochthon, autochthons or autochthonous may refer to:
Fiction
* Autochthon (Atlantis), a character in Plato's myth of Atlantis
* Autochthons, characters in the novel ''The Divine Invasion'' by Philip K. Dick
* Autochthon, a Primordial in the ...
inhabitants (such as
Maronites
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the largest ...
,
Assyrians and
Mandeans) of various nations from the Middle East, most significantly from
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
and to a lesser degree
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. In 1973, all immigration restrictions based on race and geographic origin were officially terminated.
Australia enumerated its population by race between 1911 and 1966, by racial-origin in 1971 and 1976, and by self-declared ancestry alone since 1981, meaning no attempt is now made to classify people according to skin color.
As at the 2016 census, it was estimated that around 58% of the Australian population were Anglo-Celtic Australians with 18% being of other European origins, a total of 76% for European ancestries as a whole.
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
Recent censuses in Brazil are conducted on the basis of self-identification. According to the 2010 Census, they totaled 91,051,646 people, and made up 47.73% of the Brazilian population.
As a term, "white" in Brazil is generally applied to people of European descent. The term may also encompass other people, such as Brazilians of
West Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
n descent, and in some contexts, East Asians. Though Brazilians of East Asian descent are, in other contexts, classified as "Yellow" (amarela).
The census shows a trend of fewer Brazilians of a different descent (most likely mixed) identifying as white people as their social status increases.
[Gregory Rodriguez,]
Brazil Separates Into Black and White
," LA Times, 3 September 2006. Note that the figures belie the title. Nevertheless, light-skinned
mulatto
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
es and mestizos with European features were also historically deemed as more closely related to "whiteness" then unmixed blacks.
Canada
Of the over 36 million
Canadians
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
enumerated in 2021 approximately 25 million reported being "
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
", representing 70 percent of the population.
In the 1995 Employment Equity Act, "'members of visible minorities' means persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour". In the 2001 Census, persons who selected Chinese, South Asian, African, Filipino, Latin American, Southeast Asian, Arab, West Asian, Middle Eastern, Japanese or Korean were included in the visible minority population. A separate census question on "cultural or ethnic origin" (question 17) does not refer to
skin color
Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents and or individu ...
.
Chile
Scholarly estimates of the white population in Chile vary dramatically, ranging from 20%
to 52%.
According to a study by the
University of Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. about 30% of the Chilean population is Caucasian,
while the 2011
Latinobarómetro
Latinobarómetro Corporation is a private non-profit organization, based in Providencia, Chile. It is responsible for carrying out Latinobarómetro, an annual public opinion survey that involves some 20,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countrie ...
survey shows that some 60% of Chileans consider themselves white.
During colonial times in the eighteenth century, an important flux of emigrants from Spain populated Chile, mostly Basques, who vitalized the Chilean economy and rose rapidly in the social hierarchy and became the political elite that still dominates the country.
An estimated 1.6 million (10%) to 3.2 million (20%) Chileans have a surname (one or both) of Basque origin. The Basques liked Chile because of its great similarity to their native land: similar geography, cool climate, and the presence of fruits, seafood, and wine.
Chile was never an attractive place for European migrants in the nineteenth and twentieth century simply because it was far from Europe and difficult to reach. Chile experienced a tiny but steady arrival of Spanish,
Italians
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, region2 ...
, Irish,
French,
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
,
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
, English,
Scots,
Croats
The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, G ...
and
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
, in addition to immigration from other Latin American countries.
The original arrival of Spaniards was the most radical change in demographics due to the arrival of Europeans in Chile,
since there was never a period of massive immigration, in contrast to neighboring nations such as Argentina and Uruguay.
Facts about the amount of immigration do not coincide with certain national chauvinistic discourse, which claims that Chile, like Argentina or Uruguay, would be considered one of the "white" Latin American countries, in contrast to the racial mixture that prevails in the rest of the continent. However, it is undeniable that immigrants have played a major role in Chilean society.
Between 1851 and 1924 Chile only received the 0.5% of the European immigration flow to Latin America, compared to the 46% received by Argentina, 33% by Brazil, 14% by Cuba, and 4% by Uruguay. This was because most of the migration occurred across the Atlantic before the construction of the Panama Canal. Europeans preferred to stay in countries closer to their homelands instead of taking the long trip through the Straits of Magellan or across the Andes.
In 1907, European-born immigrants composed 2.4% of the Chilean population, which fell to 1.8% in 1920, and 1.5% in 1930.
After the failed
liberal revolution of 1848 in the German states,
a significant German immigration took place, laying the foundation for the
German-Chilean
German Chileans ( es, germanochilenos; german: Deutsch-Chilenen) are Chileans descended from German immigrants, about 30,000 of whom arrived in Chile between 1846 and 1914. Most of these were from Bavaria, Baden and the Rhineland, and also from ...
community. Sponsored by the Chilean government to "civilize" and colonize the southern region,
these Germans (including German-speaking Swiss,
Silesians
Silesians ( szl, Ślōnzŏki or Ślůnzoki; Silesian German: ''Schläsinger'' ''or'' ''Schläsier''; german: Schlesier; pl, Ślązacy; cz, Slezané) is a geographical term for the inhabitants of Silesia, a historical region in Central Europ ...
,
Alsatians and Austrians) settled mainly in
Valdivia
Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau R ...
,
Llanquihue and
Los Ángeles. The Chilean Embassy in Germany estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Chileans are
of German origin.
Another historically significant immigrant group were Croatian immigrants. The
Croatian Chileans, their descendants today, number at an estimated 380,000 persons, the equivalent of 2.4% of the population. Other authors claim, on the other hand, that close to 4.6% of the Chilean population have some
Croatian ancestry. Over 700,000 Chileans may have British (English, Scottish or
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
) origin, 4.5% of Chile's population.
Chileans of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
descent are estimated 90,000 to 120,000.
Most of them live either in the
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
area or in the
Antofagasta
Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669.
After the Spanish American wars ...
area, and
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
is one of the 5 countries with the most descendants of Greeks in the world.
The descendants of the
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
reach 90,000 and it is estimated that about 5% of the
Chilean population has some
French ancestry. 184,000-800,000 (estimates) are
descendants of Italians.
Other groups of European descendants are found in smaller numbers.
Colombia
The Colombian government does not carry out official racial censuses, nor does it carry out self-identification racial censuses as is the case in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, so the figures shown are usually based on data from populations considered "non-ethnic", which are those (whites and mestizos). According to the 2018 census, approximately 87.58% of the Colombian population are white or mestizo. However, according to the recognized
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
portal of genetics
Public Library of Science
PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012 ) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launc ...
(PLOS) in 2015 determined that the country's European ancestry is 62.5%
according to a study of ancestry and history carried out in different South American countries, with Colombia being the country with the second highest European heritage only behind
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. Another study made by the same genetic portal determined in 2018 that the European ancestry of Colombians was 72.9%. The same United States sources claim that white Colombians are mostly descendants of Spaniards, Italian,
German, Irish, French, Portuguese, and Lebanese (
Arab diaspora in Colombia
Arab Colombians refers to Arab immigrants and their descendants in the Republic of Colombia. Most of the Arab Middle Easterners came from Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine escaping from the repression of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and finan ...
) Colombians are found in notable numbers
Many Spanish began their explorations searching for gold, while other Spanish established themselves as leaders of the native social organizations teaching natives the
Christian faith
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global populat ...
and the ways of their
civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
. Catholic priests would provide education for Native Americans that otherwise was unavailable. Within 100 years after the first Spanish settlement, nearly 95 percent of all Native Americans in Colombia had died. The majority of the deaths of Native Americans were the cause of diseases such as measles and smallpox, which were spread by European settlers. Many Native Americans were also killed by armed conflicts with European settlers.
Between 1540 and 1559, 8.9 percent of the residents of Colombia were of Basque origin. It has been suggested that the present day incidence of business entrepreneurship in the region of
Antioquia is attributable to the Basque immigration and Basque character traits.
[Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World by William A. Douglass, Jon Bilbao, p. 167] Few Colombians of distant Basque descent are aware of their Basque ethnic heritage.
In Bogota, there is a small colony of thirty to forty families who emigrated as a consequence of the Spanish Civil War or because of different opportunities.
Basque priests were the ones that introduced handball into Colombia.
[Possible paradises: Basque emigration to Latin America by José Manuel Azcona Pastor, p. 203] Basque immigrants in Colombia were devoted to teaching and public administration.
In the first years of the Andean multinational company, Basque sailors navigated as captains and pilots on the majority of the ships until the country was able to train its own crews.
In December 1941 the United States government estimated that there were 4,000 Germans living in Colombia.
[Latin America during World War II by Thomas M. Leonard, John F. Bratzel, P.117] There were some Nazi agitators in Colombia, such as Barranquilla businessman Emil Prufurt.
Colombia invited Germans who were on the U.S. blacklist to leave.
SCADTA
Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos german: Deutsch-Kolumbianische Luftverkehrsgesellschaft), or SCADTA, was the world's second airline, and the first airline in Latin America, operating from 1919 until World War II. After the war, SCA ...
, a Colombian-German air transport corporation which was established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in the western hemisphere.
The Italians arrived on the Colombian coast, and quickly moved towards the expanding agricultural areas. There, some of them achieved success in the commercialisation of livestock, agricultural products and imported goods, which later led to the transfer of their lucrative activities to Barranquilla. Some important buildings were created by Italians in the nineteenth century, like the famous
Colón Theater Colón may refer to:
Places
;Argentina
* Colón, Entre Ríos
* Colón Department, Córdoba
* Colón Department, Entre Ríos
* Colón, Buenos Aires
;Colombia
* Colón, Nariño
* Colón, Putumayo
* Colón Department (Colombia)
;Costa Rica
* C ...
of the capital. It is one of the most representative theatres of Colombia, with a neoclassic architecture: was built by the Italian architect Pietro Cantini and founded in 1892; has more than 2,400 square metres (26,000 sq ft) for 900 people. This famous Italian architect also contributed to the construction of the
Capitolio Nacional
Capitolio Nacional (or National Capitol) is a building on Bolivar Square in central Bogotá, the construction of which began in 1848 and was finished in 1926. It houses both houses of the Congress of Colombia. It was designed by Thomas Reed.
...
of the capital. Oreste Sindici was an Italian-born Colombian musician and composer, who composed the music for the Colombian national anthem in 1887. Oreste Sindici died in Bogotá on 12 January 1904, due to severe arteriosclerosis. In 1937 the Colombian government honored his memory. After the Second World War, Italian emigration to Colombia was directed primarily toward
Bogota,
Cali
Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...
and
Medellin. They have Italian schools in
Bogota (Institutes "
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
" and "
Alessandro Volta
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (, ; 18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian physicist, chemist and lay Catholic who was a pioneer of electricity and power who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the ...
"),
Medellín
Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...
("Leonardo da Vinci") &
Barranquilla
Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...
("Galileo Galilei"). The Italian migration government estimates that there are at least 2 million Colombians of Italian descent, making them the second largest and most numerous European group in the country after the Spanish.
The first and largest wave of immigration from the Middle East began around 1880, and remained during the first two decades of the twentieth century. They were mainly Maronite Christians from Greater Syria (Syria and Lebanon) and Palestine, fleeing the then colonized Ottoman territories.
Syrians, Palestinians, and Lebanese continued since then to settle in Colombia.
[ Luis Angel Arango Library: Los sirio-libaneses en Colombia]
lablaa.org Due to poor existing information it is impossible to know the exact number of Lebanese and Syrians that immigrated to Colombia. A figure of 5,000–10,000 from 1880 to 1930 may be reliable.
Whatever the figure, Syrians and Lebanese are perhaps the biggest immigrant group next to the Spanish since independence.
Those who left their homeland in the Middle East to settle in Colombia left for different reasons such as religious, economic, and political reasons.
Some left to experience the adventure of migration. After Barranquilla and Cartagena, Bogota stuck next to Cali, among cities with the largest number of Arabic-speaking representatives in Colombia in 1945.
The Arabs that went to
Maicao
Maicao (Wayuu: ) is a city and municipality in the Department of La Guajira, northern Republic of Colombia. It is located 76 km from Riohacha, the capital of the department and is the second largest urban center near the border with Venezuela ...
were mostly
Sunni Muslim
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...
with some
Druze
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
and
Shiites
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...
, as well as Orthodox and Maronite Christians.
The mosque of
Maicao
Maicao (Wayuu: ) is a city and municipality in the Department of La Guajira, northern Republic of Colombia. It is located 76 km from Riohacha, the capital of the department and is the second largest urban center near the border with Venezuela ...
is the second largest mosque in Latin America.
Middle Easterns are generally called (Turkish).
Costa Rica
In 2009, Costa Rica had an estimated population of 4,509,290. White people (includes mestizo) make up 94%, 3% are
black people
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...
, 1% are Amerindians, and 1% are Chinese. White Costa Ricans are mostly of Spanish ancestry, but there are also significant numbers of Costa Ricans descended from British,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, English,
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, French, Irish,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
and
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
families, as well a sizable Jewish (namely Ashekanzi and Sephardic) community.
Cuba
White people in Cuba make up 64.1% of the total population according to the 2012 census with the majority being of diverse Spanish descent. However, after the mass exodus resulting from the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...
in 1959, the number of white Cubans actually residing in Cuba diminished. Today various records claiming the percentage of whites in Cuba are conflicting and uncertain; some reports (usually coming from Cuba) still report a less, but similar, pre-1959 number of 65% and others (usually from outside observers) report a 40–45%. Despite most white Cubans being of Spanish descent, many others are of French, Portuguese, German, Italian and Russian descent.
During the eighteenth, nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century, large waves of
Canarians
Canary Islanders, or Canarians ( es, canarios), are a Romance people and ethnic group. They reside on the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa, and descend from a mixture of European settlers and ab ...
,
Catalans
Catalans (Catalan language, Catalan, French language, French and Occitan language, Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian language, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance languages, Romance ethnic group native to Cataloni ...
,
Andalusians
The Andalusians ( es, andaluces) are a European ethnic group, native to Andalusia, an autonomous community in southern Spain. Andalusia's statute of autonomy defines Andalusians as the Spanish citizens who reside in any of the municipalitie ...
,
Castilians
Castilians (Spanish: ''castellanos'') are those people who live in certain former areas of the historical Kingdom of Castile, but the region's exact limits are disputed. A broader definition is to consider as Castilians the population belonging ...
, and
Galicians
Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance l ...
emigrated to Cuba. Many
European Jews
The history of the Jews in Europe spans a period of over two thousand years. Some Jews, a Judaean tribe from the Levant, Natural History 102:11 (November 1993): 12–19. migrated to Europe just before the rise of the Roman Empire. A notable e ...
have also immigrated there, with some of them being
Sephardic
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
. Between 1901 and 1958, more than a million Spaniards arrived to Cuba from Spain; many of these and their descendants left after Castro's communist
regime took power. Historically, Chinese descendants in Cuba were classified as white.
In 1953,
it was estimated that 72.8% of Cubans were of European ancestry, mainly of Spanish origin, 12.4% of African ancestry, 14.5% of both African and European ancestry (mulattos), and 0.3% of the population was of Chinese and or East Asian descent (officially called "amarilla" or "yellow" in the census). However, after the
Cuban revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...
, due to a combination of factors, mainly mass
exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
to Miami, United States, a drastic decrease in immigration, and interracial reproduction, Cuba's demography has changed. As a result, those of complete European ancestry and those of pure African ancestry have decreased, the mixed population has increased, and the Chinese (or East Asian) population has, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.
The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...
says the present Cuban population is 38% white and 62% black/mulatto.
The
Minority Rights Group International
Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is an international human rights organisation founded with the objective of working to secure rights for ethnic, national, religious, linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples around the world. Thei ...
says that "An objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies both pre- and post-revolution. Estimates of the percentage of people of African descent in the Cuban population vary enormously, ranging from 33.9 per cent to 62 per cent".
According to the most recent 2012 census, Cuba's population was 11,167,325.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
In 2013, white Salvadorans were a minority ethnic group in El Salvador, accounting for 12.7% of the country's population. An additional 86.3% of the population were mestizo, having mixed Amerindian and European ancestry.
France
White people in France are a broad racial-based, or
skin color
Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents and or individu ...
-based, social category in French society.
In statistical terms, the French government banned the collection of racial or ethnic information in 1978, and the
National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), therefore, does not provide census data on white residents or citizens in France.
French courts have, however, made cases,
and issued rulings, which have identified white people as a demographic group within the country.
White people in France are defined, or discussed, as a racial or social grouping, from a diverse and often conflicting range of political and cultural perspectives; in anti-racism activism in France, from right-wing political dialogue or propaganda, and other sources.
Background
Whites in France have been studied with regard the group's historical involvement in French colonialism; how "whites in France have played a major international role in colonizing areas of the globe such as the African continent."
They have been described as a privileged social class within the country, comparatively sheltered from racism and poverty. has reported how "most white people in France only know the banlieues as a kind of caricature". Banlieues, outer-city regions across the country that are increasingly identified with minority groups, often have residents who are disproportionately affected by unemployment and poverty.
The lack of census data collected by the INED and INSEE for whites in France has been analyzed, from some academic perspectives, as masking racial issues within the country, or a form of false Color blindness (racial classification), racial color blindness. Writing for Al Jazeera, French journalist Rokhaya Diallo suggests that "a large portion of white people in France are not used to having frank conversations about race and racism." According to political sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, "whites in France lie to themselves and the world by proclaiming that they do not have institutional racism in their nation." Sociologist Crystal Marie Fleming has written; "While many whites in France refuse to acknowledge institutionalized racism and white supremacy, there is widespread belief in the specter of 'anti-white racism'".
Use in right-wing politics
Accusations of anti-white racism,
suggestions of the displacement of,
or lack of representation for,
the group, and rhetoric surrounding whites in France experiencing poverty have been, at times, utilised by various right-wing political elements in the country. University of Lyon's political scientist Angéline Escafré-Dublet has written that "the equivalent to a white backlash in France can be traced through the debate over the purported neglect of the 'poor Whites' in France".
In 2006, French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen suggested there were too many "players of colour" in the France national football team, after he suggested that 7 of the 23-player squad were white.
In 2020, French politician Nadine Morano stated that French actress Aïssa Maïga, who was born in Senegal, should "go back to Africa" if she "was not happy with seeing so many white people in France".
Guatemala
In 2010, 18.5% of Guatemalans belonged to the white ethnic group, with 41.7% of the population being mestizo, and 39.8% of the population belonging to the 23 Maya peoples, Indigenous groups.
It is difficult to make an accurate census of whites in Guatemala, because the country categorizes all non-indigenous people are mestizo or Ladino people, ladino and a large majority of white Guatemalans consider themselves as mestizos or ladinos. By the nineteenth century the majority of immigrants were Germans, many who were bestowed fincas and coffee plantations in Cobán, while others went to Quetzaltenango and Guatemala City. Many young Germans married mestiza and Indigenous peoples, indigenous Q'eqchi' people, Q'eqchi' women, which caused a gradual whitening. There was also immigration of Belgians to Santo Tomás de Castilla, Santo Tomas and this contributed to the mixture of Afro-Guatemalan, black and mestiza women in that region.
Haiti
Honduras
As of 2013, Hondurans of solely white ancestry are a small minority in Honduras, accounting for 1% of the country's population. An additional 90% of the population is mestizo, having mixed indigenous and European ancestry.
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Kenya
Mexico
![Retrato de familia Fagoga Arozqueta - Anónimo ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Retrato_de_familia_Fagoga_Arozqueta_-_An%C3%B3nimo_ca.1730.jpg)
White Mexicans are Mexico, Mexican citizenship, citizens of complete or predominant
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
descent.
While the Federal government of Mexico, Mexican government does conduct ethnic censuses on which a Mexican has the option of identifying as "white,"
["Resultados del Modulo de Movilidad Social Intergeneracional"]
, ''INEGI'', 16 June 2017, Retrieved on 30 April 2018. the results obtained from these censuses are not published. Instead, Mexico's government publishes the percentage of "light-skinned Mexicans" residing in the country; that percentage was 47%
in 2010 and 49% in 2017.
["Visión INEGI 2021 Dr. Julio Santaella Castell"]
''INEGI'', 3 July 2017, Retrieved on 30 April 2018. Due to its less direct racial undertone, the label "Light-skinned Mexican" has been favored by the government and media outlets over "White Mexican" as the go-to choice to refer to the segment of Mexico's population possessing European physical traits
["DOCUMENTO INFORMATIVO SOBRE DISCRIMINACIÓN RACIAL EN MÉXICO"](_blank)
''CONAPRED'', Mexico, 21 March 2011, retrieved on 28 April 2017. when discussing different ethno-racial dynamics in Mexico's society. Sometimes, nonetheless, "White Mexican" is used.
["Por estas razones el color de piel determina las oportunidades de los mexicanos"]
, ''Huffington post'', 26 July 2017, Retrieved on 30 April 2018.["Ser Blanco"]
, 6 July 2017, Retrieved on 19 June 2018.["Comprobado con datos: en México te va mejor si eres blanco"]
''forbes'', 7 August 2018, Retrieved on 4 November 2018.
Europeans began arriving in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire; and while during the colonial period most European immigration was Spanish (mostly from northern provinces such as Cantabria, Navarra, Galicia Spain, Galicia and the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country,
), in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries European and European-derived populations from North America, North and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
did immigrate to the country. According to twentieth- and twenty-first-century academics, large-scale intermixing between the Ethnic groups in Europe, European immigrants and the native Indigenous peoples of Mexico, Indigenous peoples produced a Mestizo group which would become the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population by the time of the Mexican Revolution.
However, according to church and censal registers from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, colonial times, the majority (73%) of Spanish men married Spanish women.
Said registers also put in question other narratives held by contemporary academics, such as European immigrants who arrived to Mexico being almost exclusively men or that "pure Spanish" people were all part of a small powerful elite, as Spaniards were often the most numerous ethnic group in the colonial cities
and there were menial workers and people in poverty who were of complete Spanish origin.
Another ethnic group in Mexico, the Mestizos in Mexico, Mestizos, is composed of people with varying degrees of European and indigenous ancestry, with some showing a European genetic ancestry higher than 90%. However, the criteria for defining what constitutes a Mestizo varies from study to study, as in Mexico a large number of white people have been historically classified as Mestizos, because after the Mexican revolution the Mexican government began defining ethnicity on cultural standards (mainly the language spoken) rather than racial ones in an effort to unite all Mexicans under the same racial identity.
Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both, methodology and percentages given, extra-official sources such as the ''World Factbook'' and ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations, calculate Mexico's white population as only 9% or between one tenth to one fifth (the results of the 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and deemed inaccurate).
Surveys that account for phenotypical traits and have performed actual field research suggest rather higher percentages: using the presence of blond hair as reference to classify a Mexican as white, the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico calculated the percentage of said ethnic group at 23%. With a similar methodology, the American Sociological Association obtained a percentage of 18.8%. Another study made by the University College London in collaboration with Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, National Institute of Anthropology and History found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively, nationwide surveys in the general population that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography report percentages of 47%
and 49%
respectively.
A study performed in hospitals of Mexico City reported that an average 51.8% of Mexican newborns presented the Congenital disorder, congenital skin birthmark known as the Mongolian spot whilst it was absent in 48.2% of the analyzed babies. The Mongolian spot appears with a very high frequency (85–100%) in Asian, Native American, and African children, a medium frequency (50-70%) in Hispanic children,
and a very low frequency (1–10%) in Caucasian children.
The skin lesion reportedly almost always appears on South American
and Mexican children of
Mestizo
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...
background. According to the Mexican Social Security Institute (shortened as IMSS) nationwide, around half of Mexican babies have the Mongolian spot.
Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest percentages of Ethnic groups of Europe, White population, where, according to the American historian and anthropologist Howard F. Cline the majority of the people have no native admixture or is of predominantly European ancestry, resembling in aspect that of Spaniards, northern Spaniards.
In the north and west of Mexico, the indigenous tribes were substantially smaller than those found in central and southern Mexico, and also much less organized; thus, they remained isolated from the rest of the population or even in some cases were hostile towards Mexican colonists. The northeast region, in which the indigenous population was eliminated by early European settlers, became the region with the highest proportion of whites during the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Spanish colonial period. However, recent immigrants from southern Mexico have been changing, to some degree, its demographic trends.
A number of settlements on which European immigrants have maintained their original culture and language survive to this day and are spread all over Mexican territory; among the most notable groups are the Mennonites who have colonies in states as variated as Chihuahua
or Campeche and the town of Chipilo in the state of Puebla, inhabited nearly in its totality by descendants of Italian immigrants that still speak their Venetian-derived dialect.
Namibia
New Zealand
The establishment of British colonies in Australia from 1788 and the boom in whaling and sealing in the Southern Ocean brought many Europeans to the vicinity of New Zealand. Whalers and sealers were often itinerant and the first real settlers were missionaries and traders in the Bay of Islands area from 1809. Early visitors to New Zealand included whalers, sealers, missionaries, mariners, and merchants, attracted to natural resources in abundance. They came from the Australian colonies, Great Britain and Ireland, Germany (forming the next biggest immigrant group after the British and Irish), France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, and Canada.
In the 1860s, discovery of gold started a gold rush in Otago. By 1860 more than 100,000 British and Irish settlers lived throughout New Zealand. The Otago Association actively recruited settlers from Scotland, creating a definite Scottish influence in that region, while the Canterbury Association recruited settlers from the south of England, creating a definite English influence over that region.
In the 1870s, the MP Julius Vogel borrowed millions of pounds from Britain to help fund capital development such as a nationwide rail system, lighthouses, ports and bridges, and encouraged mass migration from Britain. By 1870 the non-Māori population reached over 250,000.
Other smaller groups of settlers came from Germany, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe as well as from China and India, but British and Irish settlers made up the vast majority, and did so for the next 150 years.
Nicaragua
As of 2013, the white ethnic group in Nicaragua account for 17% of the country's population. An additional 69% of the population is mestizo, having mixed indigenous and European ancestry.
In the nineteenth century, Nicaragua was the subject of central European immigration, mostly from Germany, England and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, who often married native Nicaraguan women. Some Germans were given land to grow coffee in Matagalpa, Jinotega and Esteli, although most Europeans settled in San Juan del Norte. In the late seventeenth century, pirates from England, France and Holland mixed with the indigenous population and started a settlement at Bluefields (Mosquito Coast).
Paraguay
Peru
According to the 2017 Peru Census, 2017 census 5.9% or 1.3 million (1,336,931) people 12 years of age and above self-identified as white. There were 619,402 (5.5%) males and 747,528 (6.3%) females. This was the first time a question for ethnic origins had been asked. The regions with the highest proportion of self-identified whites were in La Libertad Region, La Libertad (10.5%), Tumbes Region, Tumbes and Lambayeque Region, Lambayeque (9.0% each), Piura Region, Piura (8.1%), Callao (7.7%), Cajamarca Region, Cajamarca (7.5%), Lima Province (7.2%) and Lima Region (6.0%).
South Africa
White Dutch people first arrived in South Africa around 1652.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, some 2,000 Europeans and their descendants were established in the region. Although these early Afrikaners represented various nationalities, including German peasants and French Huguenots, the community retained a thoroughly Dutch character.
The Kingdom of Great Britain captured Cape Town in 1795 during the Napoleonic Wars and Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, permanently acquired South Africa from Amsterdam in 1814. The 1820 Settlers, first British immigrants numbered about 4,000 and were introduced in 1820. They represented groups from England, Ireland, Scotland, or
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
and were typically more literate than the Dutch.
The discovery of diamonds and gold led to a greater influx of English speakers who were able to develop the mining industry with capital unavailable to Afrikaners.
They have been joined in more subsequent decades by former colonials from elsewhere, such as Zambia and Kenya, and poorer British nationals looking to escape famine at home.
Both Afrikaners and English have been politically dominant in South Africa during the past; due to the controversial Population Registration Act, 1950, racial order under ''apartheid'', the nation's predominantly Afrikaner government became a target of condemnation by other African states and the site of considerable dissension between 1948 and 1991.
There were 4.6 million whites in South Africa in 2011, down from an all-time high of 5.2 million in 1995 following a wave of emigration commencing in the late twentieth century. However, many returned over time.
United Kingdom and Ireland
Historical white identities
Before the Industrial Revolutions in Europe whiteness may have been associated with social status. Aristocrats may have had less exposure to the sun and therefore a pale complexion may have been associated with status and wealth.
This may be the origin of "blue blood" as a description of royalty, the skin being so lightly pigmented that the blueness of the veins could be clearly seen. The change in the meaning of white that occurred in the colonies (see #History of the term, above) to distinguish Europeans from non-Europeans did not apply to the 'Home Nations, home land' countries (England, Ireland, Scotland and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
). Whiteness therefore retained a meaning associated with social status for the time being, and, during the nineteenth century, when the British Empire was at its peak, many of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy developed Classism, extremely negative attitudes to those of lower social rank.
Edward Lhuyd discovered that Welsh language, Welsh, Goidelic languages, Gaelic, Cornish language, Cornish and Breton language, Breton are all part of the same language family, which he termed the "Celtic languages, Celtic family", and was distinct from the Germanic languages, Germanic English Language, English; this can be seen in context of the emerging romantic nationalism, which was also Celtic nationalism, prevalent among those of Celtic descent.
Just as race reified whiteness in America, Africa, and Asia, capitalism without social welfare reified whiteness with regards to social class in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland; this social distinction of whiteness became, over time, associated with racial differences.
For example, George Sims in his 1883 book ''How the poor live'' wrote of "a dark continent that is within easy reach of the General Post Office ... the wild races who inhabit it will, I trust, gain public sympathy as easily as [other] savage tribes".
Modern and official use
From the early 1700s, Britain received a small-scale immigration of black people due to the Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade.
The oldest British Chinese, Chinese community in Britain (as well as in Europe) dates from the nineteenth century.
Since the end of World War II, a substantial immigration from the British colonisation of Africa, African, British West Indies, Caribbean and British Asian, South Asian (namely the British Raj) Crown colony, colonies changed the picture more radically,
while the adhesion to the European Union brought with it a heightened immigration from Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe.
Today the Office for National Statistics uses the term ''white'' as an ethnic category. The terms ''white British'', ''Irish migration to Great Britain, White Irish'', ''Scottish People, White Scottish'' and ''White Other (United Kingdom Census), White Other'' are used. These classifications rely on individuals' self-identification, since it is recognised that ethnic identity is not an objective category.
Socially, in the UK ''white'' usually refers only to people of native British, Irish and European origin. As a result of the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census the White population stood at 85.5% in England (White British: 79.8%),
[2011 Census: Ethnic group, local authorities in England and Wales](_blank)
accessed 13 June 2014. at 96% in Scotland (White British: 91.8%),
[Table 2 – Ethnic groups, Scotland, 2001 and 2011 Scotlands Census published 30 September 2013](_blank)
, accessed 13 June 2014. at 95.6% in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
(White British: 93.2%),
while in Northern Ireland 98.28% identified themselves as White,
amounting to a total of 87.2% White population (or White British and Irish).
United States
The cultural boundaries separating White Americans from other racial or ethnic categories are contested and always changing. Professor David Roediger, David R. Roediger of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, University of Illinois, suggests that the construction of the White race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slave owners from slaves. By the eighteenth century, ''White'' had become well established as a racial term. Author John Tehranian has noted the changing classifications of immigrant ethnic groups in American history. At various times each of the following groups has been allegedly excluded from being considered white, despite generally having been considered legally white under the US census and US naturalization law: German Americans, Germans, Greek Americans, Greeks, White Hispanic and Latino Americans, White Hispanics, Arab Americans, Arabs, Iranian Americans, Iranians, Afghan Americans, Afghans, Irish Americans, Irish, Italian Americans, Italians, American Jews, Jews of History of the Jews in Europe, European and Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahi descent, Slavic Americans, Slavs, and Spanish Americans, Spaniards.
On several occasions Finnish Americans, Finns were "racially" discriminated against in their early years of immigration and not considered European but "Asian". Some believed that they were of Mongoloid, Mongolian ancestry rather than "native" Caucasoid, European origin due to the Finnish language belonging to the Uralic languages, Uralic and not the Indo-European language family.
During American history, the process of officially being defined as ''White'' by law often came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship. The Immigration Act of 1790 offered naturalization only to "any alien, being a free white person". In at least 52 cases, people denied the status of White by immigration officials sued in court for status as White people. By 1923, courts had vindicated a "common-knowledge" standard, concluding that "scientific evidence" was incoherent. Legal scholar John Tehranian says that this was a "performance-based" standard, relating to religious practices, education, intermarriage, and a community's role in the United States.
In 1923, the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court decided in ''United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind'' that people of Indian descent were not White men, and thus not eligible for citizenship.
[''United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, Certificate From The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit'', No. 202. Argued 11, 12 January 1923. —Decided 19 February 1923, United States Reports, v. 261, The Supreme Court, October Term, 1922, 204–215.] While Thind was a high caste Hindu born in the northern Punjab region and classified by certain scientific authorities as of the Aryan race, the court conceded that he was not White or
Caucasian
Caucasian may refer to:
Anthropology
*Anything from the Caucasus region
**
**
** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region
*
*
*
Languages
* Northwest Caucasian l ...
since the word Aryan "has to do with linguistic and not at all with physical characteristics" and "the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences" between Indians and White people.
In ''United States v. Cartozian'' (1925), an Armenians, Armenian immigrant successfully argued (and the Supreme Court agreed) that his nationality was White in contradistinction to other people of the Near East—Kurds, Turks, and Arabs in particular—on the basis of their Christian religious traditions.
In conflicting rulings ''In re Hassan'' (1942) and ''Ex parte Mohriez'', United States District Courts found that Arabs did not, and did qualify as White, respectively, under immigration law.
In the early twenty-first century, the relationship between some ethnic groups and whiteness remains complex. In particular, some
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and Arab individuals both self-identify and are considered as part of the White American racial category, but others with the same ancestry feel they are not white nor are they perceived as White by American society. The United States Census Bureau proposed but withdrew plans to add a new category for MENA, Middle Eastern and North African peoples in the 2020 United States Census, U.S. Census 2020. Specialists disputed whether this classification should be considered a White ethnicity or a race. According to Frank Sweet, "various sources agree that, on average, people with 12 percent or less admixture appear White to the average American and those with up to 25 percent look ambiguous (with a Mediterranean skin tone)".
The current United States Census, U.S. Census definition includes as White "a person having origins in any of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
or
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
."
The U.S. Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation describes White people as "having origins in any of the original peoples of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, or
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
through racial categories used in the Uniform Crime Reports Program adopted from the ''Statistical Policy Handbook'' (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce."
[''Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook''](_blank)
U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation, p. 97 (2004) The "white" category in the UCR includes non-black Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanics.
White Americans made up nearly 90% of the population in 1950.
A report from the Pew Research Center in 2008 projects that by 2050, Non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic White Americans will make up 47% of the population, down from 67% projected in 2005. According to a study on the genetic ancestry of Americans, White Americans (stated "European Americans") on average are 98.6% European, 0.19% African and 0.18% Native American.
"Supplemental Tables and Figures"
p. 42. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2015. Whites born in those Southern United States, Southern states with higher proportions of African-American populations, tend to have higher percentages of African ancestry. For instance, according to the 23andMe database, up to 13% of self-identified White American Southerners have greater than 1% African ancestry.
White persons born in Southern United States, Southern states with the highest African-American populations tended to have the highest percentages of hidden African ancestry.
[Scott Hadly, "Hidden African Ancestry Redux", ]
DNA USA*
'', 23andMe, 4 March 2014. Robert P. Stuckert, member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Ohio State University, has said that today the majority of the descendants of African slaves are White.
Black author Rich Benjamin, in his book, ''Searching for Whitopia, Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America'', reveals how racial divides and White decline, both real and perceived, shape democratic and economic urgencies in America. The book examines how White flight, and the fear of White decline, affects the country's political debates and policy-making, including housing, lifestyle, social psychology, gun control, and community. Benjamin says that such issues as fiscal policy or immigration or "Best Place to Live" lists, which might be considered race-neutral, are also defined by racial anxiety over perceived White decline.
One-drop rule
The "one-drop rule" – that a person with any amount of known black African ancestry (however small or invisible) is considered black – is a classification that was used in parts of the United States. It is a colloquial term for a set of laws passed by 18 U.S. states between 1910 and 1931. Such laws were declared unconstitutional in 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled on anti-miscegenation laws while hearing ''Loving v. Virginia''; it also found that Racial Integrity Act of 1924, Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, based on enforcing the one-drop rule in classifying vital records, was unconstitutional. The one-drop rule attempted to create a binary system, classifying all persons as either Black or White regardless of a person's physical appearance. Previously persons had sometimes been classified as mulatto or mixed-race, including on censuses up to 1930. They were also recorded as Indian. Some people with a high proportion of European ancestry could Passing (racial identity), pass as "White", as noted above. This binary approach contrasts with the more flexible social structures present in Latin America (derived from the Spanish Empire, Spanish colonial era system), where there were less clear-cut divisions between various ethnicities. People are often classified not only by their appearance but by their class.
As a result of centuries of having children with White people, the majority of African Americans have some European admixture, and many people long accepted as White also have some African ancestry. Among the most notable examples of the latter is President Barack Obama, who is believed to have been descended from an early African enslaved in America, recorded as "John Punch", through his mother's apparently White line.
In the twenty-first century, writer and editor Debra Dickerson renews questions about the one-drop rule, saying that "easily one-third of black people have White DNA". She says that, in ignoring their European ancestry, African Americans are denying their full multi-racial identities. Singer Mariah Carey, who is multi-racial, was publicly described as "another White girl trying to sing black". But in an interview with Larry King, she said that, despite her physical appearance and having been raised primarily by her White mother, she did not "feel White".
Since the late twentieth century, genetic testing has provided many Americans, both those who identify as White and those who identify as black, with more nuanced and complex information about their genetic backgrounds.
Puerto Rico
Contrary to most other Caribbean places, Puerto Rico gradually became predominantly populated by European immigrants.
Puerto Ricans of Spaniards, Spanish,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
(primarily via Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico, Corsica) and French descent comprise the majority. ''(See: Spanish settlement of Puerto Rico)''.
In 1899, one year after the United States acquired the island, 61.8% or 589,426 people self-identified as White.
One hundred years later (2000), the total increased to 80.5% (3,064,862);
not because there has been an influx of Whites toward the island (or an exodus of non-White people), but a change of race conceptions, mainly because of Puerto Rican elites to portray Puerto Rico's image as the "White island of the Antilles", partly as a response to scientific racism.
[How Puerto Rico Became White—University of Wisconsin-Madison]
. (PDF).
Hundreds are from Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico, Corsica, French immigration to Puerto Rico, France, Italian people, Italy, Portuguese people, Portugal, Irish immigration to Puerto Rico, Ireland, Scottish people, Scotland, and German immigration to Puerto Rico, Germany, along with large numbers of immigrants from Spain. This was the result of granted land from Spain during the ''Real Cedula de Gracias de 1815'' (Royal Decree of Graces of 1815), which allowed European Catholics to settle in the island with a certain amount of free land.
Between 1960 and 1990, the census questionnaire in Puerto Rico did not ask about race or color. Racial categories therefore disappeared from the dominant discourse on the Puerto Rican nation.
However, the 2000 United States Census, 2000 census included a racial self-identification question in Puerto Rico and, for the first time in since 1950, allowed respondents to choose more than one racial category to indicate mixed ancestry. (Only 4.2% chose two or more races.) With few variations, the census of Puerto Rico used the same questionnaire as in the U.S. mainland. According to census reports, most islanders responded to the new federally mandated categories on race and ethnicity by declaring themselves "White"; few declared themselves to be black or some other race.
[Representation of racial identity among Island Puerto Ricans]
Mona.uwi.edu. However, it was estimated 20% of White Puerto Ricans may have black ancestry.
Uruguay
Uruguayans and Argentina, Argentines share closely related demographic ties. Different estimates state that Uruguay's population of 3.4 million is composed of 88% to 93% White Uruguayans. Though Uruguay has welcomed immigrants from around the world, its population largely consists of people of European ethnic groups, European origin, mainly Spaniards and Italians. Other European immigrants include Jews from Eastern and Central Europe.
According to the 2006 National Survey of Homes by the Uruguayan National Institute of Statistics: 94.6% self-identified as having a White background, 9.1% chose black ancestry, and 4.5% chose an Amerindian ancestry (people surveyed were allowed to choose more than one option).
Venezuela
According to the official Venezuelan census, the term "white" involves external issues such as light skin, shape and color of hair and eyes, among other factors. Though the meaning and usage of the term "white" has varied in different ways depending on the time period and area, leaving its precise definition as somewhat confusing. The 2011 Venezuelan Census states that "White" in Venezuela is used to describe the Venezuelans of European origin.
The 2011 National Population and Housing Census states that 43.6% of the Venezuelan population (approx. 13.1 million people) identify as White.
[Ine.gob.ve](_blank)
Venezuelan population by 30 June 2014 is 30,206,2307 according to the National Institute of Statistics Genetic research by the University of Brasilia shows an average admixture of 60.6% European, 23.0% Amerindian and 16.3% African ancestry in Venezuelan populations.
The majority of white Venezuelans are of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and German descent. Nearly half a million European immigrants, mostly from Spain (as a consequence of the Spanish Civil War), Italy and Portugal, entered the country during and after World War II, attracted by a prosperous, rapidly developing country where educated and skilled immigrants were welcomed.
Spaniards were introduced into
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
during the colonial period. Most of them were from Andalusia, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country and from the Canary Islands. Until the last years of World War II, a large part of the European immigrants to Venezuela came from the Canary Islands, and its cultural impact was significant, influencing the development of Castilian in the country, its gastronomy and customs. With the beginning of oil operations during the first decades of the twentieth century, citizens and companies from the United States, United Kingdom and Netherlands established themselves in Venezuela. Later, in the middle of the century, there was a new wave of originating immigrants from
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
(mainly from Galicia, Andalucia and the Basque Country),
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
(mainly from southern Italy and Venice) and Portugal (from Madeira) and new immigrants from Germany, France, England, Croatia, Netherlands, and other European countries, among others, animated simultaneously by the program of immigration and colonization implanted by the government.
Zambia
Zimbabwe
See also
* Caucasoid
* Criollo people
* Demographics of Europe
* Ethnic groups in Europe
* Ethnic groups in West Asia
* European diaspora
* White supremacy
* White genocide conspiracy theory
References
Bibliography
* Allen, Theodore, ''The Invention of the White Race'', 2 vols. Verso, London 1994.
* Baum, Bruce David, ''The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity''. NYU Press, New York and London 2006, .
*
* Brodkin, Karen, ''How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America'', Rutgers, 1999, .
*
* Foley, Neil, ''The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)
* Gossett, Thomas F., ''Race: The History of an Idea in America,'' New ed. (New York: Oxford University, 1997)
* Guglielmo, Thomas A., ''White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago'', 1890–1945, 2003,
* Hannaford, Ivan, ''Race: The History of an Idea in the West'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1996)
* Ignatiev, Noel, ''How the Irish Became White'', Routledge, 1996, .
* Jackson, F. L. C. (2004). Book chapter: ''British Medical Bulletin'' 2004; 69: 215–35 . Retrieved 29 December 2006.
* Jacobson, Matthew Frye, ''Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race'', Harvard, 1999, .
* Oppenheimer, Stephen (2006). ''The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story''. Constable and Robinson Ltd., London. .
*
*
*
*
* Smedley, Audrey, ''Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview,'' 2nd ed. (Boulder: Westview, 1999).
* Tang, Hua., Tom Quertermous, Beatriz Rodriguez, Sharon L. R. Kardia, Xiaofeng Zhu, Andrew Brown, James S. Pankow, Michael A. Province, Steven C. Hunt, Eric Boerwinkle, Nicholas J. Schork, and Neil J. Risch (2005) ''Genetic Structure, Self-Identified Race/Ethnicity, and Confounding in Case-Control Association Studies Am. J. Hum. Genet.'' 76:268–75.
*
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Latin American caste system
Race (human categorization)
People of European descent
Skin pigmentation, White
White (human racial classification),