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"Whites" redirects here. For other uses, see White (disambiguation).

In the context of basic English usage, the term White people (also white race or whites) is used to denote "... a human group having light-coloured skin, especially of European ancestry."

In contexts that extend upon or modify this basic meaning, there exist a wide range of semantic refinements and differing connotations. In these contexts, the term is applied with varying degrees of formality, consistency, and analytic rigor. All such contexts are impossible to exhaustively enumerate, but include sociological, cultural, political, medical, linguistic and legal analysis.

The concepts underlying this term affect discourse on national identity, consanguinity, public policy, religion, population statistics, racial segregation, affirmative action, eugenics, racial marginalization and racial quotas.

The variability and breadth of associations with this term also differs internationally. People who are considered white in one part of the world during a certain time period may not be considered white in other parts of the world, or in a different time period.

History of the term

Black has been used to describe sub-Saharan Africans since ancient history. The ancient history of the use of white is somewhat less clear, but there is evidence for it. For example, the Amherst Papyri, scrolls written in ancient Ptolemaic Greek, contain a well-studied reference to the use of black and white to refer to skin color. More recently, the term was applied with the development of taxonomy in the 18th century. Linneaus in Systema Naturae (1735) used the terms rufus (red), albus (white), luridus (yellow), and niger (black) to describe the races. Subsequently Immanuel Kant in Von den verschiedenen Rassen den Menschen (About The Different Races of Men - 1775) uses weiß (white).

Social vs. physical perceptions of white

In many countries, such as the United States, the definition of white has changed over the years. Even though the natural sciences may have been used throughout history to justify varying treatments based on racial background, race today is largely considered a sociological construct, the definition of which is subject to change as society evolves.

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Definitions

United States

David R. Roediger argues that the construction of the white race in the United States was in direct effort to mentally distance slaveowners from slaves. By the 18th century, white had become well established as a racial term. In the United States, confusion over the designation white or Caucasian is considerable, due partly to the introduction of the term Hispanic in the 1980 United States Census.

The 2000 United States Census, speaking of race categories, states, "They generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria."

Nevertheless, recent research indicates that self-described race is a near-perfect indicator of an individual's genetic profile, at least in the United States. Using 326 genetic markers, Tang et al. (2005) identified 4 genetic clusters among 3,636 individuals sampled from 15 locations in the United States, and were able to correctly assign individuals to groups that correspond with their self-described race ("white", "African American", "East Asian", or "Hispanic") for all but five individuals (an error rate of 0.14%). They conclude that ancient ancestry, which correlates tightly with self-described race and not current residence, is the major determinant of genetic structure in the U.S. population. .

It should be noted, though, that racial admixture is important among US ethnic groups. For example, the above used article states that from the genetic perspective, Hispanics generally represent a differential mixture of European, Native American and African ancestry, and that the sample used was of a single location in Texas and was composed of Mexican Americans. As to African Americans, it also states that this group has an estimated White admixture of 10%-20%, while many whites also have some degree of non-White admixture.

The United States Census parameters for race give national origin a racial value. This can be confusing in regards to people of Middle Eastern Americans and North African American who are grouped together by law with White Americans. The U.S. Census assumes that all Jewish Americans are white, but this is not the case. For example, by responding "Israeli" in the U.S. Census, a person will be categorized as white, even though not all Israelis are of European descent (Ashkenazi or Sephardi); they may be Jews of Ethiopian (Beta Israel), Middle Eastern (Mizrahi), Yemenite (Teimani, considered by some a Mizrahi subgroup), or Indian descent (see Jewish ethnic divisions for more information on Jewish ethnic diversity), or may instead be Israeli Arabs or Druze (who may or may not identify themselves as Arabs).

Canada

In 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).

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.

A separate census question on "cultural or ethnic origin" (question 17) does not refer to skin colour.

Norway

According 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". Statistics Norway considers the Asian category to include Turkish people.

United Kingdom and Ireland

In 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. People of Middle Eastern ancestry are not seen as white people in the UK.

The term Black Irish does not refer to people with black skin, but instead to hair color. 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. British surnames such as White, Whitlock, Whited and Whitehead also trace their origins to blonde or white hair color.

China

In China, an ethnic minority known as Bai, refer to themselves as "white people" and the term Bai, meaning "white", became their official name in 1956. The Bai People hold the white colour in high esteem and call themselves "Baizi", "Baini" or "Baihuo", which means white people. In 1956, of their own will they were named the Bai Nationality by Chinese Authorities.

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Physical Traits

Although there is no single universal definition of White, if we base our definition on Oxford English Dictionary , we can associate some traits with Whites. As discussed below, these are traits which are either quite rare or non-existant among non-white populations.

Human hair and eye color is unusually diverse in northern and eastern Europe. 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. Sexual selection is particularly indicated because it is known to favor color traits and color polymorphisms. In addition, hair and eye color is most diverse in what used to be, when first peopled by hunter-gatherers, a unique ecozone of low-latitude continental tundra. This type of environment skews the operational sex ratio (OSR) of hunter-gatherers toward a male shortage in two ways: (1) men have to hunt highly mobile and spatially concentrated herbivores over longer distances, with no alternate food sources in case of failure, the result being more deaths among young men; (2) women have fewer opportunities for food gathering and thus require more male provisioning, the result being less polygyny. These two factors combine to leave more women than men unmated at any one time. Such an OSR imbalance 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.

Hair Colour

Dark

Dark hair is the most common color hair among white people.

Blond

Blond 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.

Blond hair is genetically associated with lighter eye color such as blue, green, or light brown and with pale, often freckled, skin tones. It ranges from nearly white (platinum blond, tow-haired) to a dark golden blond. Strawberry blond is a rare type: a mixture of blond and red hair. Blondness is a recessive gene. Blond hair has more phaeomelanin than eumelanin but has less than red hair. Natural blondes have the thinnest strand of hair but have more hair on their heads than others, with an average of 140,000 hairs.

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. In certain European populations, however, the occurrence of blond hair is more frequent, and often remains throughout adulthood, leading to misinterpretation that blondness is a European trait. Based on recent genetic information, it is probable that humans with blond hair became distinctly numerous in Europe about 11,000 to 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. Before then, Europeans had dark brown hair and dark eyes, which is predominant in the rest of the world.

Red Hair

Red 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.

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. Cultural reactions have varied from ridicule to admiration, with a common stereotype being the “fiery-tempered redhead”.

Eye Colour

Those with non-European ancestry generally have darker eyes and less variability in eye color than those of European descent. For example between 60 and 70 percent of the Norwegian population have blue eyes.

Light Skin

Research indicates that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe where there is less sunlight available, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races. Relatively light-skinned people are found among many ethnic groups, like Asians who owe their relatively light skin to different mutations. Reduced melanin in white skinned people also reduces scarring.

The advantage of light skin is that it does not block sunlight as effectively, leading to increased production of vitamin D₃, necessary for calcium absorption and bone growth. The lighter skin of women may result from the higher calcium needs of women during pregnancy and lactation. 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.

See also

Notes

1. ^ White, from the Compact Oxford English Dictionary.
2. ^ Adams, J.Q. (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago, IL: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 0-7872-8145-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
3. Thompson, William (2005). Society in Focus. Boston, MA: Pearson. 0-205-41365-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
4. Roediger, Wages of Whiteness, 186; Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (New York, 1998).
5. Questions and Answers for Census 2000 Data on Race from U.S. Census Bureau, 14 March 2001. Retrieved 15 October 2006.
6. Genetic Structure, Self-Identified Race/Ethnicity, and Confounding in Case-Control Association Studies
7. The data from question 19 of the 2001 census is collected "to support programs that promote equal opportunity for everyone to share in the social, cultural and economic life in Canada". The visible minority categories are defined in the Employment Equity Act: Chinese, South Asian, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Southeast Asian, Arab, West Asian, Korean, and Japanese. The population groups variable includes the same groups—although multiple-response data is counted differently—as well as "white" and "aboriginal self-reporting". Question 19 is in the Long Form census questionnaire, which is filled out by about twenty percent of respondents. See "About this Variable: Visible Minority Groups" and "Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada: Visible Minority Groups".
8. In the 2001 Census, data on members of visible minorities for employment equity purposes was based on responses to question 19. This question was introduced for the first time in the 1996 Census. The 2001 question is similar to the one used in the 1996 Census. Prior to 1996, data on visible minorities were derived from responses to the ethnic origin question, in conjunction with other ethno-cultural information, such as language, place of birth and religion. See Human Resources and Social Development Canada
9. Census 2001: 2B (Long Form)
10. Norsk samfunnsvitenskapelig datatjeneste
11. Statistics Norway
12. Identity, Ethnicity and Identity, National Statistics online. Retrieved 03 November 2006.
13. Census 2001 - Ethnicity and religion in England and Wales, Ethnicity and religion. Retrieved 03 November 2001.
14. Kissoon, Priya. King's College of London. Asylum Seekers: National Problem or National Solution. 2005. November 7, 2006.
17. http://www.ehbonline.org/article/PIIS1090513805000590/abstract
18. ^ "Cavegirls were first blondes to have fun", from The Times. Note, the end of the Times article reiterates the Disappearing blonde gene hoax; the online version replaced it with a rebuttal.
19. Frudakis T, Thomas M, Gaskin Z, Venkateswarlu K, Chandra KS, Ginjupalli S, Gunturi S, Natrajan S, Ponnuswamy VK, Ponnuswamy KN. Sequences associated with human iris pigmentation." Genetics. 2003 Dec;165(4):2071-83. PMID 14704187.
20. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-225478/Norway
21. ^ Washington Post: Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin

Further reading

• Thomas A. Guglielmo, White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945, 2003, ISBN 0-19-515543-2
• Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race, Harvard, 1999, ISBN 0-674-95191-3.
• Frank W. Sweet, Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule, Backintyme, 2005, ISBN 0-939479-23-0.
• Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-91825-1.
• Karen Brodkin, How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America, Rutgers, 1999, ISBN 0-8135-2590-X.
• Neil Foley, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)
• Theodore Allen, The Invention of the White Race, 2 vols. (London: Verso, 1994)
• Thomas F. Gossett, Race: The History of an Idea in America, New ed. (New York: Oxford University, 1997)
• Ivan Hannaford, Race: The History of an Idea in the West (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1996)
• Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview, 2nd ed. (Boulder: Westview, 1999).
• "The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept" A textbook/workbook for thought, speech and/or action for victims of racism (White supremacy) Neely Fuller Jr. 1984
• Alfredo Tryferis, "Separated by a Common Language: The Strange Case of the White Hispanic," The Raw Story, http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/tryferis/hispanic.htm

External links

• Legally white Precedents of legal opinions and judgments authored by US courts in whiteness cases filed by non-Europeans
• Not Quite White: Race Classification and the Arab American Experience, by the Arab American Institute
• Scientists Find DNA Change That Accounts for White Skin

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