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History of the term
The term white race or white people entered dictionaries of the major European languages in the 1600s.[10] Winthrop Jordan, author of Black Over White, argues that race emerged with the inherited status of slavery. He says the shift from Christian, free, and English to white happened in approximately 1680.[11] Theodore W. Allen notes in The Invention of the White Race that white identity emerged in the colonies with slavery, and says that "seventeenth-century commentator, Morgan Godwyn, found it necessary to explain to the English at home that, in Barbados, 'white' was 'the general name for Europeans."[12] White quickly became a legal category, encoded in a variety of laws and conferring different status. In 1758, Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist Carolus Linnaeus divided humankind into four, main races or subspecies loosely based on geographic distribution: Homo sapiens europaeus, the white race; asiaticus, the yellow race; americanus, the red race; and afer (for Africa), the black race,[13] assigning attributes to each of his four categories.[14]
According to Gregory Jay, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Before the age of exploration, group differences were largely based on language, religion, and geography. ...the European had always reacted a bit hysterically to the differences of skin color and facial structure between themselves and the populations encountered in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (see, for example, Shakespeare's dramatization of racial conflict in Othello and The Tempest). Beginning in the 1500s, Europeans began to develop what became known as "scientific racism," the attempt to construct a biological rather than cultural definition of race ... Whiteness, then, emerged as what we now call a "pan-ethnic" category, as a way of merging a variety of European ethnic populations into a single "race"...[16] Within [anthropology], a variety of research positions have been staked out regarding the importance and classification of race, with most 19th century positions assuming that races existed, and offering a variety of definitions of white people. Many such definitions, such as those of Earnest Hooton and Carleton S. Coon, classified Middle Easterns, Arabs and Jews, of defined as a "Mediterranean Subrace" as white.[17] However, by the mid-20th century, following the work of Franz Boas and W.E.B. DuBois, a position of the nonexistence of biological equality had reached something approaching a consensus, as symbolized by the UNESCO statement on race in 1950, which included the text: "“Race is less a biological fact than a social myth and as a myth it has in recent years taken a heavy toll in human lives and suffering."[18] Some scientists think that "much of this discussion does not derive from an objective scientific perspective" and "from both an objective and scientific (genetic and epidemiologic) perspective there is great validity in racial/ethnic self-categorizations, both from the research and public policy points of view." and argue for the use of white people/race category in biomedicine (See: Race in biomedicine) [19] Social and physical perceptions of white
Definitions of white have changed over the years, including the official definitions used in many countries, such as the United States and Brazil.[4] Some defied official regulations through the phenomenon of "passing", many of them becoming white people, either temporarily or permanently. Through the mid- to late 20th century, numerous countries had formal legal standards or procedures defining racial categories (see Limpieza de sangre, Apartheid in South Africa, hypodescent). However, as critiques of racism, scientific arguments against the existence of race, and international prohibitions on state racial discrimination arose, a trend towards self-identification of racial status arose. AustraliaFrom the late 19th century through 1973, the Government of Australia restricted all permanent immigration to the country by non-Europeans under the White Australia policy, which was enabled by the Immigration Restriction Act 1901,[20] but not formally codified. 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. Under the policy, large numbers of Portuguese, Italian, Greek, South Slavic, German, Dutch and Polish immigrants were admitted following World War Two, assimilating into the country's Anglo-Celtic population.[21] Immigration is no longer restricted to white/European people. BrazilBrazil's definition of whiteness is premised on racial mixture rather than hypodescent, producing a range of historical categories for race. As a term, white is more broadly applied than in North America. Recent censuses in Brazil are conducted on the basis of self-identification. In the 2000 census, 53% of Brazilians (approximately 90 million people in 2000; around 100 million as of 2006) were white and 39% pardo or multiracial Brazilians. White is applied as a term to people of European, Jewish and Arab descent. The census shows a trend of fewer Brazilians of African descent (blacks and pardos) identifying as white people as their social status increases.[22] CanadaIn the results of Statistics Canada's 2001 Canadian Census, white is one category in the population groups data variable, derived from data collected in question 19 (the results of this question are also used to derive the visible minority groups variable). [23] 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 marked-in Chinese, South Asian, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Southeast Asian, Arab, West Asian, Japanese or Korean were included in the visible minority population.[24] A separate census question on "cultural or ethnic origin" (question 17) does not refer to skin colour.[25] NorwayAccording to the Norwegian Social Science Data Service, white is a possible answer to ethnic/people group category question. After Norwegians, Sami, Kvens and other Nordics, it is mentioned as white/European. Other categories are Asian, Black/African/Caribbean and "other".[26] Statistics Norway considers the Asian category to include Turkish people.[27] United Kingdom and IrelandIn 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. The category White Other includes all white people not from the British Isles.[28][29] In the UK white usually refers only to people of European origin.[30] The term Black Irish does not refer to people with black skin, but instead to hair colour and eye colour. The term White Irish is not used in the UK in contrast with Black Irish; it refers to the ethnically Irish immigrant population in Britain.[31] British surnames such as White, Whitlock, Whited and Whitehead also trace their origins to blonde or white hair colour.[32] United StatesDavid R. Roediger argues that the construction of the white race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slaveowners from slaves.[33] By the 18th century, white had become well established as a racial term. Among those not considered white at some time in American history are the Irish, Germans, Ashkenazi Jews, Italians, Spaniards, Slavs, Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples.[34] In Oklahoma, state laws identified Native Americans as white people during Jim Crow-era segregation.[35] The U.S. Census currently defines "white people" as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.[36] The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation also categorizes "white people" as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce. [37] North African and Middle Easterners, however, are usually not included within the general structural concepts of white American society. The U.S. Census classification of North African and Middle Eastern Americans as white is largely done in a legal context. Various other countries account for them in non-white categories. In the United States, common non-governmental, colloquial and social understandings of "white" differ from the country's official government definition by excluding Muslims even if they otherwise look white.[38] Laws dating from 17th century colonial America that defined children excluded children of at least one black parent from the status of being white. Early legal standards did so by defining the race of a child based on a mother's race while banning interracial marriage, while later laws defined all people of some African ancestry as black, under the principle of hypodescent. These laws ensured that the children of slaves were available as labor to their parent's master and furthered racist standards of white women's "purity" under threat from black sexual "contamination." Some 19th century categorization schemes defined people with one black parent (the other white) as mulatto, with one black grandparent as quadroon and with one black great grandparent as octoroon. The latter categories remained within an overall black or African-American category. Some members of these categories passed temporarily or permanently as white.[39] Conversely, late 19th and 20th century interracial unions between Europeans and Native Americans were handled in the opposite way. Natives were seen as people without a future to be assimilated into a larger American culture. Tribal membership was frequently defined according to so-called blood quantum standards, so that "mixed race" children were eventually excluded. This led to the classification of increasing numbers of people with Native ancestry as white, a trend that has been reversed in the census figures of recent decades which show increasing self-identification as Native American.[35] 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 argues that in reality this was a "performance-based" standard, relating to religious practices, education, intermarriage and a community's role in the United States.[40] Contemporary U.S. CensusThe 2000 U.S. census states that racial categories "generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria."[41] In U.S. census documents, the designation white or Caucasian overlaps with the term Hispanic, which was introduced in the 1980 census as a category of ethnicity, separate and independent of race.[42] In cases where individuals do not self-identify, the U.S. census parameters for race give each national origin a racial value. This groups Middle Eastern Americans and North African American together with European Americans as White Americans. The U.S. census assumes that all unidentified Israeli Americans are white. By responding Israel in the U.S. census, a person will be categorized as white, even though not all Israelis are of European (Ashkenazi or Sephardi) or Middle Eastern (Mizrahi) descent. They may be Jews of Ethiopian (Beta Israel), Yeminite (considered by some a Mizrahi subgroup) or Indian descent; or they may be Israeli Arabs or Druze (who may or may not identify themselves as Arabs). Egyptian immigrant Mostafa Hefny, who describes himself as dark-skinned with kinky hair, is white according to the U.S. government. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget defines blacks as having origins with the black racial groups of Africa, and whites as having origins with the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, including Egypt.[43] Hefny insists that he is more black than Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and retired Gen. Colin Powell: "I was born and raised in Africa and they were not.. ... And yet they are classified as Black and I am classified as White." Although Hefny admits the region of Africa he comes from is north of the Sahara, he claims that he is black because his ancestors were from the ancient kingdom of Nubia, now part of Egypt and Sudan. Image:Hefny.jpg Mostafa Hefny is white under US law, due to the place of his birth but self identifies as black. Hefny says that when the U.S. government changed his race, they also changed his social status: "Definitely, I would've had more opportunity for advancement and even for hiring had I been considered black. ... I was prevented from applying and requesting positions and other benefits for minority person because I knew I was legally white."[43] Hefny has attempted to sue the U.S. government to get his racial identity changed.[44] Hefny's case is part of the larger controversy concerning the Racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians. Genetic StudiesA recent American study indicates that self-described race or ethnicity is a near-perfect indicator of an individual's membership in one of four genetic clusters within the population. Using 326 genetic markers, Tang et al. (2005) identified four genetic clusters among 3,636 individuals sampled from 15 locations in the United States. After recruiting people in specific racial categories and excluding people who identified as other categories, they were able to correctly assign individuals to groups that correspond with their self-described race or ethnicity (white, African American, East Asian or Hispanic) for all but five individuals (an error rate of 0.14%). They concluded that "ancient geographic ancestry, which is highly correlated with self-identified race/ethnicity—as opposed to current residence—is the major determinant of genetic structure in the U.S. population."[45]. Tang et al. state that "From the genetic perspective, Hispanics generally represent a differential mixture of European, Native American, and African ancestry, with the proportionate mix typically depending on country of origin. Our sample was from a single location in Texas and was composed of Mexican Americans."[46] Mexican-Americans are generally European and Native American.[47] In genetic studies, local populations of African Americans have an estimated European admixture of 10.6% to 22.5%.[48] A National Human Genome Research Institute study stated, "In a survey of college students who self-identified as 'white' in a northeastern U.S. university, around 30% were estimated to have less than 90% European ancestry." [49] The Race, Ethnicity, and Genetics Working Group of the National Human Genome Research Institute, located in Bethesda, Maryland, notes that "although genetic analyses of large numbers of loci can produce estimates of the percentage of a person’s ancestors coming from various continental populations (Shriver et al. 2003; Bamshad et al. 2004), these estimates may assume a false distinctiveness of the parental populations, since human groups have exchanged mates from local to continental scales throughout history (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994; Hoerder 2002)."[49] Culture
Western culture or Western civilization is a term used to refer to the cultures of Europe, and to societies outside of Europe with a substantial Western European cultural or physical influence. The term which comprises the broad heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs (such as religious beliefs) and specific artifacts and technologies as shared within the Western sphere of influence. Although there is no single universal definition of white people, most people defined as whites live in such societies. Numerous white people also take part in societies with non-Western cultures. According to a University of Minnesota study, 77% of white Americans believe "their race has a distinct culture that should be preserved." [50] Physiology and geneticsAlthough there is no single universal definition of whiteness, some traits that are associated with Europeans are associated with whites. Human hair and eye color is unusually diverse in northern and eastern Europe. According to anthropologist Peter Frost,
According to Frost, "The many alleles involved (at least seven for hair color) and their independent origin over a short span of evolutionary time indicate some kind of selection." Summarizing research in the field, in the Annual Review of Anthropology, Nina Jablonski notes
Jablonski attributes the narrow range of traits among African populations to functional problems of lighter skin, such as reduced tanning ability, and high risk of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer.[52] Likewise, Tony Frudakis et al. note that, "genetic determinants for pigmentation in the various tissues [(skin, eyes, hair)] are distinct and that these determinants have been subject to a common set of systematic and evolutionary forces that have shaped their distribution in world populations."[53] In contrast, Frost speculates that these differences are the result of sexual selection for color traits and color polymorphisms under a male shortage among European hunter-gatherers which "would have increased the pressures of sexual selection on early European women, one possible outcome being an unusual complex of color traits: hair- and eye-color diversity and, possibly, extreme skin depigmentation."[54] Light SkinWhite people are archetypically distinguished by lighter skin, and in general, Europeans have lighter skin (as measured by population average skin reflectance read by spectrophotometer) than other ethnic groups.[55] While all mean values of skin reflectance of non-European populations are lower than Europeans, some European and non-European populations overlap in lightness of skin,[56] as noted by the Supreme Court of the United States, which stated in a 1923 lawsuit over whiteness that the "[so-called] swarthy brunette[s] ... are darker than some of the lighter hued persons of the [so-called] brown or yellow races" .[57] Humans have pigment cells, which contain pigment granules called melanosomes. In people of European descent, the melanosomes are fewer, smaller, and lighter than those from people of African ancestry, while the melanosomes of East Asians show intermediate properties.[58] According to a 2006 study by 10 scientists, lighter pigmentation observed in Europeans and East Asians is due to independent genetic mutations in at least three loci. They concluded that light pigmentation in Europeans is at least partially due to the effects of positive directional and/or sexual selection. According to the study, the results also strongly suggest that Europeans and East Asians have evolved light skin independently and via distinct genetic mechanisms.[59] People with a light-skin-causing mutation at the gene SLC24A5 apparently proliferated as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, where there is less sunlight available; explaining between 25 and 38% of the European-African difference in skin melanin index.[60][61] The advantage of light skin in higher latitudes is that it does not block sunlight as effectively, leading to increased production of vitamin D3, necessary for calcium absorption and bone growth[62]. The lighter skin of women may result from the higher calcium needs of women during pregnancy and lactation.[citation needed] The reduced blockage of sunlight can be a disadvantage as people with lighter skin are more prone to sunburn and skin cancer caused by repeated exposure to the sun.[citation needed] Reduced melanin in white skinned people also reduces scarring.[citation needed] For a recent study about skin pigmentation see: [19] Hair ColorImage:Light hair coloration map.PNG
1-19%
light color hair no light color hair
20-49%
light color hair 50-79%
light colored hair 80%+
light colored hair Although there is considerable variety in the hair color of whites, most white people have brown hair. BlondBlond hair is a relatively rare human phenotype, occurring in 1.7 to 2% of the world population, with the majority of natural blondes being white.[citation needed] Blond hair is genetically associated with lighter eye colors such as blue, green, or light brown — and with pale, often freckled, skin tones. Blonde hair ranges from nearly white (platinum blond or tow-haired) to a dark golden blond. Strawberry blond is a rare type, being a mixture of blond and red hair. Blondness is a recessive gene, and has more phaeomelanin than eumelanin (but has less than red hair). Natural blondes have the thinnest strands of hair, but have more hair on their heads than others, with an average of 140,000 hairs.[citation needed] Lighter hair colors occur naturally in humans of all ethnicities as rare mutations, but at such low rates that it is hardly noticeable in most populations, or is only found in children.[63] In certain European populations, the occurrence of blond hair is more frequent, and often remains throughout adulthood. Based on recent genetic information, it is probable that humans with blond hair became distinctly numerous in Europe during the last Ice Age.[63] Red HairRed hair (also referred to as auburn, ginger, or titian) is a hair color that varies from a deep red through to bright copper. It is characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. People with red hair are often referred to as redheads. Image:Light eye coloration map.PNG
1-19% light
eye color no light
eye color 20-49% light
eye color
50-79%
light colored eyes 80%+
light colored eyes Red is an uncommon hair color among humans, found mainly in Northern and Western European populations (and descendants of these populations), although it occurs in low frequencies throughout other parts of Europe and Asia. Red hair appears to be caused by a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which causes a mutation of the MC1R protein. It is associated with fair skin color, freckles, and sensitivity to ultraviolet light. Eye ColorThose with non-European ancestry generally have darker eyes and less variability in eye color than those of European descent.[64] This varies to a great extent by ethnic group. Between 60 and 70% of the Norwegian population have blue eyes.[65] Genetics
Image:Cavallisforzageneclusters.jpg An autosomal DNA plot of genetic distances derived from 120 allele frequencies in Cavalli-Sforza's The History and Geography of Human Genes. Haplogroups are branches on the tree of early human migrations and genetic evolution. Haplogroups are defined by genetic mutations or "markers" found in Y chromosome and mtDNA testing.[66] The examination of population differences within Europe using mitochondrial or Y chromosome haplogroups has been particularly useful in tracing part of the routes of migration and populating of Europe, but these haplogroups do not provide strong inferences on population genetic structure. [67] According to University of Oulu Library (Finland): Classical polymorphic markers (i.e. blood groups, protein electromorphs and HLA antigenes) have suggested that Europe is a genetically homogeneous continent with a few outliers such as the Saami, Sardinians, Icelanders and Basques (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1993, Piazza 1993). The analysis of mtDNA sequences has also shown a high degree of homogeneity among European populations, and the genetic distances have been found to be much smaller than between populations on other continents, especially Africa. (Comas et al. 1997). Y chromosome markersImage:Y-Haplogroup R1 distribution.png Distribution of R1a (purple) and R1b (red). Two of the three most common Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Europe. Black represents all the other haplogroups. There are three major haplogroups which account for most of Europe's present-day population.
The most common haplogroup in Europe is R1b.[73] [74] Each haplogroup also has subclades.[75] R1a and R1b are subclades of Haplogroup R (Y-DNA).[76] Two main subgroups of Haplogroup I (Y-DNA) are I-M253/I-M307/I-P30/I-P40 which has highest frequency in Scandinavia, Iceland, and northwest Europe. The other is I-S31 which includes I-P37.2, which is the most common form in the Balkans and Sardinia, and I-S23/I-S30/I-S32/I-S33, which reaches its highest frequency along the northwest coast of continental Europe.[77] There is an ongoing debate regarding Neolithic Europe, with evidence both for and against a demic diffusion from the Near East: genetic studies have failed to settle the controversy so far, because they have been interpreted in different ways...A rather heated debate followed, and is still continuing.[78] [67][79] A little later, around 4,500 years ago, Haplogroup N3 began moving across from west of the Ural mountains. Haplogroup N3 follows closely the spread of the Finno-Ugric languages.[70] European population substructureImage:European population substructure.png European population substructure, using Single nucleotide polymorphisms In 2006, a study by 9 scientists made an analysis comparing different individuals from European ancestry groups. They concluded that "there is a consistent and reproducible distinction between “northern” and “southern” European population groups" [80] While above scientists claimed that the people of British Isles cluster with Northern Europeans Stephen Oppenheimer stated: "By far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia (Spain and Portugal)" [81] Bryan Sykes, also stated that "The genetic evidence shows that a large proportion of Irish Celts, on both the male and female side, did arrive from Iberia at or the same time as farming reached the Isles" [82] A recent genetic piece of research from 2007, claims: "The Spanish and Basque groups are the furthest away from other (European) continental groups, which is consistent with the suggestions that the Iberian peninsula holds the most ancient European genetic ancestry". The same study also found "several significant axes of stratification, most prominently in a North-Southeastern trend but also along an East-West axis." They also confirmed English and Irish cluster with Northern Europeans such as Germans and Poles while some Basque and Italian individuals also clustered with Northern Europeans. Despite these stratifications, they also said: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world." [83] See alsoFootnotes
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