Can Muslims be white?

[Beet]

"Race" is a social construct, so people are whatever they are labelled. For the purpose of how they are treated in Western society though, no, Muslims, particularly Arab Muslims are not white.

[Beet]

"Race" is a social construct, so people are whatever they are labelled. For the purpose of how they are treated in Western society though, no, Muslims, particularly Arab Muslims are not white.

To some extent, yes. To some extent, no.

The idea that people in Sub Saharan Africa, people in China, and people in Europe all look different in a generally uniform way was not concocted by evil White racists.

Any essentialist classification of "race", is by definition racist. Yes people from different regions look different, as do people from the same regions. Human phenotype exists along a spectrum and how we choose to chop that up, is a product of society's choice.

[Beet]

The college left is currently trying to redefine "White" to mean basically "not oppressed". It's already seeped into the popular imagination a little bit with things like the trope about "Italians and Jews weren't considered White!" Which is absolutely 100% BS. Italians and Jews weren't liked, they were discriminated against, but no one thought they weren't White. Jews and Italians were allowed to marry WASPS when interracial marriage was illegal. Jews and Italians went to White schools when there was segregation. They have always been considered White. It's a really strange idea and it hasn't yet achieved full ideology hegemony over all of academia. Going off the past re-definitions of "gender" and "racism" though, I imagine they will ultimately be successful.

Exactly. Jews, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Greeks, Albanians, Slavs, Hungarians, Italians, etc. - regardless of religion - were all legally allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and become citizens under the pre-1965 naturalization acts which limited becoming citizens to "free white persons."

That’s not totally true for Jews. And in isolated incidents for Italians. That’s why there are Jewish neighborhoods on Miami Beach. Jews had to live the colored part of town.

In any case, arguing historical facts as to who is considered what race just furthers the notion that race is social construct. Mortimer arguing that Italians and Jews were not oppressed (which is not true) via interracial marriage and segregation does not oppose the idea that race is determined by oppression, only that Italians and Jews faced lesser oppression than African Americans. It should be remembered, however, that even African Americans never faced the gas chambers.