White people

• 1. Ancient Skin And Social Status

  ›

  In ancient Greece, a man with pale skin was often called leukochros, meaning white-skinned. Plato and Aristotle described such men as weak or effeminate compared to their darker counterparts. Herodotus wrote of the Scythian Budini tribe having deep blue eyes and bright red hair. He also noted that Egyptians were dark-skinned and curly-haired. Xenophon of Athens observed Persian prisoners of war as white-skinned because they wore clothing constantly and never labored in the sun. These descriptions focused on physical complexion rather than racial identity. No European people in antiquity regarded themselves as White. They defined their identity through religion, ancestry, ethnicity, or nationality instead. The Rigveda used black skin as a metaphor for irreligiosity. Religious conversion was sometimes described figuratively as a change in skin color.

• 2. Colonial Slavery And Racial Categories

  ›

  The term White race entered major European languages during the late seventeenth century. This shift coincided with the rise of Atlantic slavery and colonial social hierarchies. In Spanish colonies, the word Spaniard became equated with White by the mid-seventeenth century. Black African, Indigenous, Jewish, or morisco ancestry formally excluded individuals from public office under the Royal Pragmatic of 1501. Blacks and indigenous peoples faced tribute obligations and could not bear arms. Free blacks and women were forbidden to wear jewels, silk, or precious metals in early colonial Mexico and Peru. Morgan Godwyn explained in 1680 that white was the general name for Europeans in Barbados. Winthrop Jordan reported that terms like Christian, free, English, and white were employed indiscriminately throughout the thirteen colonies before 1680. A brief royal offer to buy Whiteness privileges attracted fifteen applicants before pressure from White elites ended the practice. Historian Theodore W. Allen noted that White remained more familiar in American colonies than in Britain well into the eighteenth century.

• 3. Pseudoscience And The Caucasian Label

  ›

  Carl Linnaeus proposed natural taxonomic categories of the human species in 1758. He distinguished between Homo sapiens europaeus and other subdivisions including red Americans, yellow Asians, and black Africans. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach asserted in 1775 that the white color held first place among European peoples. He discovered a Georgian female skull in 1795 which he used to hypothesize origins of Europeans from the Caucasus region. Blumenbach categorized humans into four or five races largely built on Linnaeus classifications. He believed climate, soil, temperature, and mode of life influenced physical characteristics. His conclusion proclaimed all races attributed to one single human species. Between mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, race scientists classified world populations into three, four, or five races. Carleton S. Coon included Central and Northern Asian populations under the Caucasian label in 1939. Thomas Henry Huxley classified those same populations as Mongoloid in 1870. Lothrop Stoddard counted only European peoples and some Anatolian populations as White in 1920. Nazi Germany repudiated unified White race ideas promoting Nordicism instead.

• 4. American Courts And Citizenship

  ›

  The Immigration Act of 1790 offered naturalization only to any alien being a free white person. At least fifty-two cases involved people denied White status suing for citizenship. By 1923 courts concluded scientific evidence was incoherent regarding racial definitions. The Supreme Court decided United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind in February 1923 that Indian descent men were not White men. John Tehranian described this as a performance-based standard relating to religious practices and community role. In United States v. Cartozian 1925 an Armenian immigrant successfully argued his nationality was White. District courts found Arabs did qualify as White in Ex parte Mohriez but not in In re Hassan 1942. Frank Sweet stated various sources agree people with twelve percent or less admixture appear White to average Americans. The U.S. Census Bureau proposed plans to add Middle Eastern and North African categories in the 2020 census before withdrawing them. Robert P. Stuckert noted today majority descendants of African slaves are White according to Ohio State University research.

• 5. Latin American Self Identification

  ›

  Argentina received over six million European immigrants between 1857 and 1940. Major contributors included Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Slavic groups, Britons, Irish, and Scandinavians. The 1914 National Census revealed around eighty percent of national population were European immigrants or their children. Genetic studies found European ancestry predominates in all Argentine regions except northwest. Brazil conducted its 2022 Census showing forty-three point five percent identified as White totaling 88,252,121 people. Chilean estimates vary from twenty percent to fifty-two percent depending on source. A study by University of Chile found thirty percent Caucasian while Latinobarómetro survey showed sixty percent consider themselves White. Basque emigrants vitalized Chilean economy during eighteenth century colonial times. Between 1851 and 1924 Chile received only zero point five percent of European immigration flow to Latin America compared to Argentina receiving forty-six percent.

• 6. European Census Classifications

  ›

  The French government banned collection of racial or ethnic information in 1978. National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies does not provide census data on White residents. In Ireland the 2022 census recorded 4,444,145 declaring race as White Irish and Other White representing 87.4 percent total population. This was a decline from 92.4 percent in 2016 and 94.24 percent in 2011. Northern Ireland reported 96.6 percent White in 2021 census with 1,837,600 individuals. Wales had 93.8 percent White totaling 2,915,848 people in same year. Scotland recorded 92.9 percent White amounting to 5,051,875 citizens in 2022. England showed 81.0 percent White population standing at 45,783,401. The Office for National Statistics uses term White as ethnic category today. Terms White British, White Irish, White Scottish and White Other are used based on self-identification.