Caucasian

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Caucasian is a classification term for describing a race of humans that are not black, Asian, Native American or Pacific Islander. It is generally used to describe white people — that is, humans of western European descent — however, this is a bit of misclassification as the biological differences that set Caucasians apart from the rest of humankind are shared among Aryan (e.g., European and Southwest Asian peoples such as Indians, Turks and Afghans), Semitic (Israelis and others of Jewish decent) and Hamitic (northeast Africa, southern Arabia) peoples, running a gamut of skin tones/hair shades/melanin levels.

Indeed, the very term "Caucasian" refers to the Caucasus mountain region, a swath of land between the Black and Caspian Seas, and includes countries such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran. Modern Caucasians are in fact a minority population in the former Soviet Russian region and face Russian nationalist xenophobia, usually due to their Islamic roots.[1] This apparently does not stop certain white supremacist groups from using the term.

In the United States, it is used by governments and other organizations as a race classification which can include individuals of Hispanic ethnicity.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. cf. Dr. Carolyn Fleur-Lobban, Race and Racism.
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