What race is someone from the Middle East?

Answer 1

It depends entirely on how you define "race"

Answer 1: US Census / US Legal Definition

Short answer: White or Caucasian.

Based on US definition of the term "Caucasian", all people of the Middle East are White Caucasians. This is regardless of the color tone of their skin, hair, or eyes. Therefore, people of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, ALL Arab Gulf states, Yemen, Oman, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco are White Caucasians. Originally, the term "Caucasian" was applied to the people living on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains located between Turkey and Russia, but later was applied to include all people of Middle Eastern or European descent. According to US immigration laws prior to 1923, people of the Indian subcontinent were considered Caucasian, but not White, therefore, they could not be granted US citizenship while people from the Middle East and Europe were legally granted US citizenship. (See the US Supreme Court decision in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923). )

Answer 2: More Diverse Race Categories

The US Census Bureau definitions, while interesting, capture only what races are relevant from an American legal perspective and do not match "race" as is typically understood: a general skin coloration that can be noted across peoples from a variety of ethnicities and can be matched together. The US Census Bureau, for example, does not recognize any racial difference between Indians (from India), Thais, Indonesians, Chinese, and Ainu of Japan. However, these people look quite different from one another. The US Census Bureau is also nebulous about whether Hispanic is a race or not.

In this Answer, I propose more sensible race definitions that match what people would naturally see:

• White (referring to people of European or Caucasian ancestry as well as to Turkic peoples except those that would more easily categorize as East Asian or Desi)
• Black (referring to people whose ancestors are primarily African)
• Hispanic (referring to people who derive from Latin American countries having a mix of White and Indigenous American ancestry)
• Olive (referring to the olive coloration of most peoples around the Mediterranean Sea)
• Desi (referring to peoples from the Indian Subcontinent)
• East Asian (generally referring to peoples from China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan)
• Southeast Asian (generally referring to the populations from ASEAN countries, except where those people would be Austronesian)
• Austronesian (generally referring to Filipinos, Indonesians, and Polynesians)
• Indigenous Australian (Aborigines)
• Indigenous American (Indigenous Tribes from both North and South American)
• Biracial/Multiracial

Under this paradigm, Middle Easterners are predominantly of the Olive Racial Category. This coloration varies, but includes colors that might be mis-identified with a Southern German at their lightest and may be mis-indentified with Pakistani at their darkest. Arabs, Turks from Turkey, and Iranians all have this coloration. Similar non-Middle Eastern peoples who have this coloration include: Southern Italians, Southern Spaniards, Amazigh (Berbers), and other North African peoples.