Caucasian is NOT White!

Racial Equality — October 12, 2011 at 4:05

You’ve noticed the little check boxes on nearly every form or application, that asks for your race. The two that bother me the most are “African American” and “Caucasian”. I’m sure you know how I feel about the “African American” term, when we were born right here in America.

But another flaw in this categorization is that Caucasian does NOT mean White, yet all white people check it. I looked up the term Caucasian, you can read the full description here, here’s what I found:

 

The term Caucasian race (also Caucasoid, Europid, or Europoid) has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia (Middle East), Central Asia and South Asia. Historically, the term has been used to describe the entire population of these regions, without regard necessarily to skin tone.

There you have it! Most of us with Northern Africa roots, like me, should be able to check “Caucasian”. For that matter, I think I’ll start checking all the boxes of races that my parents & ancestors are.

Why are we categorized in the first place? There are tons of people who look another race, so what good is categorizing?

This is all peculiar to me, and if you think about it, and research it long enough you’ll begin to find more disturbing theories behind why we are clumped into one racial category or another. There’s just no GOOD reason to do it!

JA

Tags: african american, american, caucasian, featured, racial equality, white