We begin with an apparently straightforward question: are Arabs white? People have answered the question in book form, in scholarly articles, in legislative briefs, and in thousands of social media comments.
It is a question with no singular answer; indeed, it often evokes answers unrelated to the question. We cannot neatly categorize Arabs into any racial identity. Really, it’s a question about the ambiguities of whiteness (and the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness). We don’t know what whiteness is, exactly, or maybe we don’t agree on the definition, but we do know that it cannot (or will not) accommodate Arabs.
Continue reading “The Arab Color Wheel”