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White people (also white race or whites) is an informal label given to a segment of the human population based on inconsistently-applied characteristics such as ethnicity, country of origin, skin tone, language, and religion as discussed below.

In this context, Oxford English Dictionary defines white as:

relating to a human group having light-coloured skin, especially of European ancestry.


The designation has social, cultural, political, scientific, and legal implications such as on a nation's census, anti-miscegenation laws, racial segregation, affirmative action, eugenics, racial marginalization, racial quotas, medicine, and ancestry.

Social vs. physical perceptions of white

See also: Social interpretations of race
See also: Race
See also: Multilocus Genetic Data

United States and Canada

Main articles: White American and White Canadian

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."

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 commonly classified as Caucasian.

In the Statistics Canada Census, white is a racial category in Canada. Although it is possible to mark more than one box on the Canadian Census, the boxes for Arabs, Latin Americans, and West Asians are separate from the "white" box, so they are assumed to lie outside of its parameters. For the purposes of comparison, publications by Statistics Canada define a white person as a Canadian of European ancestry excluding Latin Americans.

Europe

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. Irish people may describe themselves as White Irish. The category White Other includes all white people not from the British Isles, although people of Middle Eastern ancestry are not seen as white people in the UK.

Latin America

In some Latin American countries, even those of visible partial African or Indigenous ancestry may be considered white. The individual decides what (if any) race he or she wishes to be considered as. Race in parts of Latin America "refers mostly to skin color or physical appearance rather than to ancestry. According to census takers' instructions in Brazil, color is explicitly defined as recording the subject's observed skin tone and has nothing to do with race. Nevertheless, skin color is used to identify racial heritage.

China

In China, a specific group of Asians - known as the Bai - are considered white. The Bai People hold the white color 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 Chineese Authorities.

Population

If we apply the dictionary definition , then most whites at present live in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand . There are also whites living in other places of the world. Some South American countries report white majorities as well, like Argentina and Brazil although definition of white in these places might be different than elsewhere.

Currently white population is in a declining trend, i.e: either declining now or will decline if current trends don’t change. This is due to the fact that most white populations have sub replacement fertility rates. Sub-replacement fertility is a fertility rate that is not high enough to replace an area's population. In industrialized countries with low child mortality, sub-replacement fertility is below approximately 2.1 children per woman's life time. Currently, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all countries in Europe have sub-replacement fertility rates . Although, USA has nearly replacement fertility rate, this is due to the populations besides whites. In 2002, white American women had fertility levels significantly below replacement level which was 1.9 per women. In non-hispanic white American women, this was 1.8 per women.

See also

References

  1. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/white?view=uk
  2. Roediger, Wages of Whiteness, 186; Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (New York, 1998).
  3. Questions and Answers for Census 2000 Data on Race from U.S. Census Bureau, 14 March 2001. Retrieved 15 October 2006.
  4. Fellegi, Ivan P. Statistics Canada. 2001 Census. 2001. November 8, 2006.
  5. Finnie, Ross. Statistics Canada. Minorities, Cognitive Skills, and the Incomes of Canadians.
  6. Identity, Ethnicity and Identity, National Statistics online. Retrieved 03 November 2006.
  7. Census 2001 - Ethnicity and religion in England and Wales, Ethnicity and religion. Retrieved 03 November 2001.
  8. Kissoon, Priya. King's College of London. Asylum Seekers: National Problem or National Solution. 2005. November 7, 2006.
  9. http://www.travelchinayunnan.com/minorities/bai.htm
  10. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/white?view=uk
  11. https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2075.html
  12. https://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ar.html
  13. https://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/br.html
  14. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7834459&dopt=Abstract
  15. https://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html
  16. http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-548.pdf

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

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