Why do Americans classify "Latinos/Hispanics", "Jews" and "Arabs" as races? (construction, legal)

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

Most Jews today are descendants of European converts to Judaism. Very few Jews today actually descend from the ancient Israelites.

According to recent DNA studies, even Ashkenazim, the northern and eastern European Jews who are are commonly regarded as being the most distinct from their semetic ancestors, have a plurality of Middle-eastern DNA. I believe about 35 -50% of the genome of Ashkenazim is of a European origin and even with that admixture, the genome indicates that they are a genetically isolated population, simply meaning that while there have been periods where the gene pool was 'added' to through inter-marriage, by and large, the Ashkenazim are an endogamic (closed) population.

Sources:

Genes set Jews apart, study finds, by Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2010

Signatures of founder effects, admixture, and selection in the Ashkenazi Jewish population, Steven M. Braya, Jennifer G. Mullea, Anne F. Dodda, Ann E. Pulverb, Stephen Woodingc, and Stephen T. Warrena, PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1004381107

Behar DM, Garrigan D, Kaplan ME, Mobasher Z, Rosengarten D, Karafet TM, Quintana-Murci L, Ostrer H, Skorecki K, Hammer MF. (2004). "Contrasting patterns of Y chromosome variation in Ashkenazi Jewish and host non-Jewish European populations

[Neutre]

Originally Posted by ReluctantGardenStater

Of course Jews and Arabs are Caucasiod. Technically, there are only three races: Caucasiod, Mongoloid, and Negroid.

There have been different classifications of races.
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the father of modern human racial classification, introduced five races.

If you think Arabs are Caucasoid, you should go to the Arab peninsula and see for yourself how a lot of natives would be Black according to the threefold racial classification you mentioned.

In fact, people in a lot of countries in the so called old world do not fit into either caucasoid, mongoloid, nor negroid.

Here you can see how Uzbeks look like. Most people in the Pacific, countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, central Asia incl. Afghanistan, and Northern Africa are neither cauc., mong., nor negr.. Or even if they would fit into those three mentioned races, you'd quickly end up having different races within the same family.

[Manolón]

Hispanics, Arabs and Jews are "cultures", not even ethnicities.
Those cultures are loosely identified by language and religion.
Celtic, Germanic, Slavics were Indoeuropean CULTURES that absorbed hundred of different tribes from different ethnic origins.
The Roman Empire absorbed hundred of tribes to give way to the Roman Civilization.
The "Anglo" culture also absorbed and is in the process of absorbing many different ethnicities, some considered not European.

[Manolón]

If you think Arabs are Caucasoid, you should go to the Arab peninsula and see for yourself how a lot of natives would be Black according to the threefold racial classification you mentioned.

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They are descendants of slaves brought from Africa.

[Manolón]

[quote=adirondackguy123;16323450]

Originally Posted by nykeroutoftown

She was born and raised in Columbia but her father is of Lebanese decent and her mother is Italian. Two areas of the world that saw heavy mixing throughout history. Like most Latin Americans she is from somewhere else, still Columbian but also European, Asain, and African.


I don't see any African or asian in her, she's a white Colombian, there are many whites in Colombia even though the majority are mestizos (indian and white mix).

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Colombia, not Columbia.
Her father is Lebanese.
Her mother is Catalan, Ripoll.
She speaks Catalan and her fiancé is also a Catalan football player.

[Manolón]

Shakira is a Columbian women of Spanish, Lebanese, and Italian decent. The likely hood of her having Black ancestry is pretty much a guarantee through her Lebanese background especially.

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In Lebanon you might find blacks that are descendants of slaves, but Lebanese are Caucasic from the Semitic branch and are the descendants of Phoenicians.

DNA studies show that Christian Lebanese have an important European component coming from Crusaders.

[Manolón]

Originally Posted by ReluctantGardenStater

Of course Jews and Arabs are Caucasiod. Technically, there are only three races: Caucasiod, Mongoloid, and Negroid.

That doesn't make Jews or Arabs "white". White really describes people of European ancestry. Jews and Arabs are of Semitic origin. Of course Jews have assimilated into European culture. The Romans destroyed Judeau and the great exodus occurred. Many Jews were forced to take up residence in areas such as Poland, Russia, Belarus, Hungary, etc. But they still have their roots in the Middle East.

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Not really, you have a lot of people in the US that call themselves white and they don't have the foggiest idea of their origin. You also have whites in Japan, the Ainus. Whites in India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, etc, etc.

[Neutre]

Originally Posted by Manolón

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Not really, you have a lot of people in the US that call themselves white and they don't have the foggiest idea of their origin. You also have whites in Japan, the Ainus. Whites in India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, etc, etc.

That's the thing with racial classifications.
They're inevitably arbitrary since humans don't suddenly change from negr. to cauc. to mong. to [fill in with any additional race].
"White" is a good example: Some people/scientists consider only people with blond hair and/or light eye colors are white, whereas other consider Ethiopians and Bangladeshis to be white too.
None of the contenders are wrong for they simply use different criteria for "white".
In the video one can easily see how central Asians are white and middle eastern and mongoloid at the same time. It's not unusual for someone to look middle eastern and their brother/sister being mongoloid or white.

Originally Posted by Manolón

If you think Arabs are Caucasoid, you should go to the Arab peninsula and see for yourself how a lot of natives would be Black according to the threefold racial classification you mentioned.

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They are descendants of slaves brought from Africa.

Regardless of whether they're descendants of slaves brought from Africa or not, they don't see themselves, nor are they perceived as belonging to a different race.
Just like the example in central Asia, it's not unusual for a Black looking Arab person to have a brother/sister who would be caucasoid according to the threefold racial classification.

In Madagascar you have negroid and Pacific Islander within the same family.
A lot of native Malagasy people are indistinguishable from a native person from Easter Island or Taiwan or New Zealand (Maori).

I could go on and on with other countries, but I think the point is not hard to comprehend. Although it is of course easier if someone has been in those areas themself.

[skihikeclimb]

The whole classification thing is pointless.

In the UK Arabs are labeled as Asians, and technically Ethiopians and Somalias are Caucasian. People forget that a person can have phenotypical Caucasian features and have black skin. Furthermore I doubt the average White American sees an arab as a "white"..

[skihikeclimb]

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

Most Jews today are descendants of European converts to Judaism. Very few Jews today actually descend from the ancient Israelites.

Obviously you have never lived or been to Israel. Over 65 percent of the population is of Sephardic Jewish Origin (I.E. Jews from Iraq, Ethiopia, North Africa, India, Persia etc....).

Of course in the United States a large percentage of Jews are Ashkenazi. Essentially meaning they are of European ancestry.