What race are Arabs?

[Criollo]

I hear Arabs being refered to as caucasoid and semitic but isnt semitic a linquistical term. So my question is if the Arabs are considered caucasoid what makes them different for them not to be considered "white" by most racialist what exact race are the Arabs are they a subrace of the white race or just simple caucasoid but not white? And since they are caucasoid why does their phenotype vary so greatly from European caucasoids?

[k5125]

I think Arabs are a culture, most of whom belong to the caucasoid or "white" race. They usually look armenoid if they are from Palestine, Syria, or Lebanon.

I have never really considered Mahmoud Abbas to be non-white. He is the same coloring as Ariel Sharon.



Here is another palestinian.



But Osama Bin Laden and other gulf arabs...I think most people can agree they are not really white. (although bin laden himself is only half yemeni. The other half is syrian.)



There are also black arabs too I think.

[Criollo]

^{But Osama Bin Laden and other gulf arabs...I think most people can agree they are not really white. (although bin laden himself is only half yemeni. The other half is syrian.)}


Whys that?

[k5125]

I just can't picture the common american person seeing bin laden as a white guy. His skin is too brown, and his facial features are very very oriental.

[alexandrian]

k5125 said:

I just can't picture the common american person seeing bin laden as a white guy. His skin is too brown, and his facial features are very very oriental.

yeah, they may be Caucasian, but they are not white according to any societal definiton of white. I don't know a single American who considers OBL "white".

[eufrenio]

This is an international forum: what passes for white in the USA is no more relevant than popular opinion on the same subject in, say, Yemen!
Let´s start with scientific definitions, and then we can move on to popular opinions.

[murphee]

Orientalid and/or Armenoid?

[nockwasright]

eufrenio said:

Let´s start with scientific definitions, and then we can move on to popular opinions.

But there's no scientific definition of white. It's a "cultural" term, with all the imprecisions and incongruence such a term (that reflects a perception of race in european history) must have.
In this case being Eurocentric is correct, as it is tied to the historical meaning of the adjective "white".

[topdog]

Caucasoid does not equal exclusively or wholistically white.

[eufrenio]

Again, "Caucasian" is not a term widely used outside of the USA. Even as a scientific term it is obsolete in Europe.
Let´s not quibble over words.
To return to the topic, Murphee had it right: Arabs are Orientalids. Of course, that is a valid characterization of the original Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula: newer "arabized" people stretching from North Africa to the Levant have a wide variety of phenotypes.

[Shenuda]

Arabs are an ethnicity, not a race. Most Arabs look Middle Eastern, some negroid or South European and very few like Middle or North Europeans.

[mike2]

eufrenio said:

Let´s not quibble over words.

Agreed. Frankly I think white and Caucasian are the same and interchangeable but there are others who disagree for their own reasons which are mostly political or social, even though I believe my own common sense reasons are better than theirs--- so nana-nana-boo-boo, ye naysayers.

I mean, after all, if the American Indians referred to the Spaniards as white men, I don't see how white can only be restricted for northwest Europeans. Its meaning varies from person to person. But in anthropology, white is almost always the same as Caucasian. I uphold that standard, but I grudgingly understand why others don't.

eufrenio said:

To return to the topic, Murphee had it right: Arabs are Orientalids. Of course, that is a valid characterization of the original Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula: newer "arabized" people stretching from North Africa to the Levant have a wide variety of phenotypes.

Exactly.

[Igu]

1-Arabs are not native to europe, they don't share a commun history with europeans, therefore, they are not westeners.
2-Arabs are predominantly muslim.
3-Arabs do not speak an indo european language.
4-20% of Arabs (I mean Arabic-speaking, not fake ones like in somalia or sudan) are mulatto-looking (Negroid admixture)

In europe, white is never used to oppose an Arab to a european, it's used only to oppose a caucasoid to a Black.

But in USA, where even Iberians are thought to be non-white (hispanic), you'd obviously find people saying that Arabs are not White.

Bin laden IMO is not even 100% caucasoid.

[gulereatie]

but dont you people realize caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid, and australoid are made up terms like a bunch of 19th century anthropologists? why do you put so much merit into them?
Classifying humans is a game that is never accurate , straightforward data.

osama has a interesting look
i think this is him with his son:

[Igu]

gulereatie said:

but dont you people realize caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid, and australoid are made up terms like a bunch of 19th centurky anthropologists? why do you put so much merit into them?

It is NOT outdated, it is still used by archeologists and anthropologists, and the study of subraces has not really stopped, it is still VERY useful to discover human migrations when genetics is absent.

I can quote you studies done in 2004 using racial terminology like caucasoid.

it is outdated only in PCness.