Eli5: Why does the US Government classify Arabs/Middle Easterners as white?

Question

So according to the US government, Arabs, Persians, Kurdish, etc people are white. Why is this?

In: Other

Answer 1

Genetically speaking North Africans, Middle Easterners, WASPs, Celts, Chinese, Inuits and all the rest are almost interchangeable. It makes very little sense to differentiate. If you’re going to have a ‘white’ ‘race’ and try to justify it on genetics it makes no sense to disclude any ethnicities beyond the Australo-Melanesians split, and you could argue it makes no sense to disclude the Australo-Melanesians.