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White people (also white race or whites) is an informal label given to a segment of the human population based on inconsistently-applied characteristics such as ethnicity, country of origin, skin tone, language, and religion.

People who are considered white in one part of the world during a certain time period may not be considered white in other parts of the world, or in a different time period. However, some people, such as the descendents of the Germanic people are almost exclusively labeled as white.

The designation has social, cultural, political, scientific, medical and legal implications such as on a nation's census, anti-miscegenation laws, racial segregation, affirmative action, eugenics, racial marginalization, and racial quotas.

Social vs. physical perceptions of white

In many countries, such as the United States, the definition of white has changed over the years. Even though the natural sciences may have been used throughout history to justify varying treatments based on racial background, race today is largely considered a sociological construct, whose definition is subject to change as socity evolves.

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United States

David R. Roediger argues that the construction of the white race in the United States was in direct effort to mentally distance slaveowners from slaves. By the 18th century, white had become well established as a racial term. In the United States, confusion over the designation white or Caucasian is considerable, due partly to the introduction of the term Hispanic in the 1980 United States Census.

The 2000 United States Census, speaking of race categories, states, "They generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria."

Nevertheless, recent research indicates that self-described race is a near-perfect indicator of an individual's genetic profile, at least in the United States. Using 326 genetic markers, Tang et al. (2005) identified 4 genetic clusters among 3,636 individuals sampled from 15 locations in the United States, and were able to correctly assign individuals to groups that correspond with their self-described race (white, African American, East Asian, or Hispanic) for all but 5 individuals (an error rate of 0.14%). They conclude that ancient ancestry, which correlates tightly with self-described race and not current residence, is the major determinant of genetic structure in the U.S. population.

The United States Census parameters for race give national origin a racial value. This can be confusing in regards to people of Middle Eastern Americans and North African American — who are commonly classified as Caucasian. Another difficulty is that by responding "Israeli" in the U.S. Census, a person will be categorized as white, even though not all Israelis are of European descent (Ashkenazi or Sephardi); they may be Jews of Ethiopian (Beta Israel), Middle Eastern (Mizrahi), Yemenite (Teimani, considered by some a Mizrahi subgroup), or Indian descent (see Jewish ethnic divisions for more information on Jewish ethnic diversity), or may instead be Israeli Arabs or Druze (who may or may not identify themselves as Arabs).

Canada

In the Statistics Canada Census, white is a racial category in Canada. It is possible to mark more than one box on the Canadian Census and the boxes for Arabs, Latin Americans, and West Asians are separate from the "white" box. One publication by Statistics Canada (but not necessarily representing the views of Statistics Canada) defines a white person as a Canadian of European ancestry.

In the Canadian Census, "white" is one possible response to the question about visible minority status. White is not one of the responses to the question about ethnic origin.

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Europe

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics uses the term White as an ethnic category. The terms White British, White Irish and White Other are used. White British includes Welsh, English and Scottish peoples, as well as residents of Northern Ireland who identify as British. Irish people may describe themselves as White Irish. The category White Other includes all white people not from the British Isles. People of Middle Eastern ancestry are not seen as white people in the UK.

According to the Norwegian Social Science Data Service, white is an ethnic category and is used interchangeably with European and includes all Europeans besides Norwegians, Sami, Finnish and other Nordics. Other categories are Asian, Black/African/Caribbean and other. Statistics Norway considers the Asian category to include Turkish people.

China

In China, an ethnic minority known as Bai, refer to themselves as "white people" and the term Bai, meaning "white", became their official name in 1956. The Bai People hold the white colour in high esteem and call themselves "Baizi", "Baini" or "Baihuo", which means white people. In 1956, of their own will they were named the Bai Nationality by Chinese Authorities.

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See also

• Arab
• Asian (people)
• Black people
• Blond
• Caucasoid
• Caucasian race
• Caucasian American
• Germanic people
• European American
• Human skin color
• Indigenous peoples
• Nordic
• Peoples of the Caucasus
• Persian people
• Race
• Race (historical definitions)
• Slavs
• White American
• White Australia policy
• White British
• White Canadian
• White nationalism
• White Power
• White pride
• Whiteness studies

References

1. ^ Adams, J.Q. (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago, IL: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 0-7872-8145-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
2. Thompson, William (2005). Society in Focus. Boston, MA: Pearson. 0-205-41365-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
3. Roediger, Wages of Whiteness, 186; Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (New York, 1998).
4. Questions and Answers for Census 2000 Data on Race from U.S. Census Bureau, 14 March 2001. Retrieved 15 October 2006.
5. http://shrn.stanford.edu/workshops/revisitingrace/Risch_confound.pdf
6. Fellegi, Ivan P. Statistics Canada. 2001 Census. 2001. November 8, 2006.
7. Finnie, Ross. Statistics Canada. Minorities, Cognitive Skills, and the Incomes of Canadians.
8. Fellegi, Ivan P. Statistics Canada. 2001 Census. 2001. November 8, 2006.
9. Identity, Ethnicity and Identity, National Statistics online. Retrieved 03 November 2006.
10. Census 2001 - Ethnicity and religion in England and Wales, Ethnicity and religion. Retrieved 03 November 2001.
11. Kissoon, Priya. King's College of London. Asylum Seekers: National Problem or National Solution. 2005. November 7, 2006.
12. http://www.nsd.uib.no/data/ny_individ/norStudy/norVariable.cfm?norVarID=7989
13. http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/01/10/innvbef_en/
14. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-7004(198801)14%3A1%3C51%3AAOBCCA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M
15. http://www.travelchinayunnan.com/minorities/bai.htm

Further reading

• Thomas A. Guglielmo, White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945, 2003, ISBN 0-19-515543-2
• Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race, Harvard, 1999, ISBN 0-674-95191-3.
• Frank W. Sweet, Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule, Backintyme, 2005, ISBN 0-939479-23-0.
• Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-91825-1.
• Karen Brodkin, How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America, Rutgers, 1999, ISBN 0-8135-2590-X.
• Neil Foley, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)
• Theodore Allen, The Invention of the White Race, 2 vols. (London: Verso, 1994)
• Thomas F. Gossett, Race: The History of an Idea in America, New ed. (New York: Oxford University, 1997)
• Ivan Hannaford, Race: The History of an Idea in the West (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1996)
• Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview, 2nd ed. (Boulder: Westview, 1999).
• "The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept" A textbook/workbook for thought, speech and/or action for victims of racism (White supremacy) Neely Fuller Jr. 1984
• Alfredo Tryferis, "Separated by a Common Language: The Strange Case of the White Hispanic," The Raw Story, http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/tryferis/hispanic.htm

External links

• Legally white Precedents of legal opinions and judgments authored by US courts in whiteness cases filed by non-Europeans
• Not Quite White: Race Classification and the Arab American Experience, by the Arab American Institute
• Scientists Find DNA Change That Accounts for White Skin

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