Walk into a DMV in Detroit or a post office in Los Angeles, and you’ll see the same form. Under the "Race" section, there’s a box for "White." If you look at the fine print provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), it explicitly states that this category includes people with origins in the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East.
But ask a Lebanese-American teenager in Dearborn or an Egyptian immigrant in Queens if they feel "white," and you’re going to get a very different answer. Probably a laugh. Or a long, frustrated sigh.
The question of whether are middle eastern people white isn't just a matter of skin tone or DNA. It’s a messy collision of 20th-century legal battles, shifting political climates, and the lived reality of people who often feel invisible in the American racial landscape. We’re talking about a group that is legally white but socially... something else entirely.
The 1915 Court Case That Changed Everything
Most people don't realize that Middle Easterners actually fought to be labeled white. It wasn't about "passing" or vanity. It was about survival.
Back in the early 1900s, the Naturalization Act of 1790 was still the law of the land, meaning only "free white persons" could become U.S. citizens. If you weren't white, you couldn't vote, own land, or stay in the country. This put Syrian and Lebanese immigrants in a terrifying legal limbo.
Enter George Dow. He was a Syrian immigrant who was denied citizenship because a lower court ruled he wasn't "white." He took it to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1915 (Dow v. United States). The court eventually ruled in his favor, deciding that because Syrians were "Semites" and the Bible happened in the Middle East, they had to be white. Otherwise, they’d be suggesting that the figures of Christianity weren't white—a bridge too far for 1915 judges.
So, the "white" label was a legal shield. It was a ticket to citizenship. But fast forward a hundred years, and that shield has started to feel a lot like a cage.
The "White" Label vs. Post-9/11 Reality
For decades, the MENA (Middle East and North African) community has been the only major group in the U.S. without its own checkbox on the census. This creates a massive data gap.
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When a community is folded into the "white" category, they disappear from the record. Think about it. If the government wants to track health disparities, like whether Arab American women have higher rates of certain cancers or if Persian small business owners are getting fair access to loans, they can't. The data just shows them as "white."
But the social reality is that since 2001, Middle Eastern people have been "racialized."
They don't get "white privilege" at the airport. They don't get "white privilege" when they apply for jobs with names like Mohammad or Osama. They are often treated as a distinct racial group by society, law enforcement, and the media, yet on paper, they remain lumped in with descendants of the Mayflower. It’s a bizarre paradox. You’re white when you apply for a mortgage (which might actually hurt your chances at minority-specific grants), but you’re definitely not white when you’re being pulled aside for "random" security screenings.
Genetic Reality vs. Social Construction
If we look at biology, the whole concept of race starts to crumble anyway.
Geneticists like Sarah Tishkoff have long argued that race is a social construct rather than a biological one. If you look at the genetic makeup of people across the Mediterranean, the borders are incredibly porous. A person from Southern Italy, a person from Greece, and a person from Lebanon often share more genetic markers with each other than they do with someone from, say, Norway or Sweden.
Middle Eastern populations are incredibly diverse. You have:
- Fair-skinned, blue-eyed Levantines in Syria and Lebanon.
- Afro-Arabs in Sudan and Southern Egypt with deep complexions.
- Berber/Amazigh populations in North Africa with distinct linguistic and genetic lineages.
- Persian, Kurdish, and Turkish populations with vast variations in appearance.
Trying to shove all these people into a "white" category—or even a single "Middle Eastern" category—is basically impossible. But the U.S. census loves categories. It craves them.
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The MENA Box: A Change is Finally Coming
After years of lobbying by groups like the Arab American Institute (AAI), spearheaded by people like Maya Berry, the U.S. government is finally listening.
In early 2024, the Biden administration announced a massive overhaul of how the government collects data on race and ethnicity. For the first time, the "Middle Eastern or North African" (MENA) category will be its own distinct checkbox, separate from "White."
This is a huge deal.
Honestly, it’s about more than just a box. It’s about money and power. Census data determines how $1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed. It determines how voting districts are drawn. By having their own category, Middle Eastern communities can finally prove they exist in the eyes of the law. They can show that their neighborhoods need more resources. They can track discrimination more accurately.
But not everyone is happy about it.
Some older generations of Arab Americans, especially those who remember the struggles of the early 20th century, worry that "losing" the white label might make them more vulnerable. There is a deep-seated fear that being "othered" on a government form could lead to surveillance or further marginalization. It’s a valid trauma-informed response to a century of being told that "white" equals "safe."
How People Actually Self-Identify
If you look at the data from the 2020 Census, many Middle Eastern people were already "revolting" against the white label. Thousands of people checked "Other" and wrote in "Lebanese," "Egyptian," or "Iranian."
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Social scientists like Dr. Nadine Naber have pointed out that identity in these communities is often tied more to religion, language, or specific national origin than to a broad racial category. A Coptic Christian from Egypt might feel very differently about the "White" label than a Muslim refugee from Iraq.
Then there’s the "Whitening" effect of class. In many parts of the U.S., wealthy Middle Eastern immigrants who live in affluent suburbs are often absorbed into whiteness. Their kids might grow up identifying as white. But for working-class communities in urban centers, the experience is almost always one of being a "Person of Color."
Why This Matters for the Future
The debate over whether are middle eastern people white isn't going away just because we got a new checkbox. It forces us to ask what "White" even means in 2026.
If the category of "White" is expanding to include anyone who looks "European-adjacent," it loses its meaning. If it’s strictly for people of European descent, then the U.S. has been lying to Middle Easterners for a century.
What we’re seeing is a community claiming its own space. They are saying, "We aren't white, and we aren't 'other.' We are MENA." This shift will change everything from medical research to the way Hollywood casts actors. No more "brown-facing" white actors to play Persians, and hopefully, no more Middle Eastern actors being told they aren't "diverse enough" for a role because they are legally white.
Actionable Steps for Navigating MENA Identity Today
The landscape is shifting fast. If you are part of this community or working with these populations, here is how to handle the transition:
- Update Your Data Collection: If you run a business, a non-profit, or a research project, stop using the old OMB standards. Add a "Middle Eastern or North African" category to your forms now. Don't wait for the 2030 Census to make it official.
- Acknowledge Internal Diversity: Stop treating "Middle Eastern" as a monolith. A person from the Maghreb has a vastly different cultural and historical background than someone from the Gulf or the Levant.
- Support MENA-Specific Health Initiatives: Encourage your local health providers to look at MENA-specific data. Genetic predispositions for things like Thalassemia or certain types of diabetes are often masked when these groups are categorized as white.
- Engage with Advocacy Groups: Organizations like the Arab American Institute (AAI) and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) provide resources on how to navigate legal and social identity.
- Respect Self-Identification: Honestly, the best way to know if someone is white or Middle Eastern is to ask them how they identify. Someone might be 100% Lebanese but feel "white" because of their upbringing and appearance. Someone else might look identical and feel 100% "of color." Both are valid.
The "White" label was a tool of the 20th century. The MENA label is the tool of the 21st. It’s about time the paperwork caught up to the people.