Are we "white"? (video)

Jacqueline Battalora, "Birth of a White Nation"; Lesley Berestein Rojas, "Are we white?" (SCPR/KPCC, Feb. 25, 2019); Crystal Q., Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Light-skinned is not white, but it helps.

Until about a year ago, plans were moving forward to include a category in the 2020 Census referred to as MENA, for "Middle Eastern or North African." It would have allowed a more accurate count of Americans of Arabic, Persian (Iranian), and other Middle Eastern/North African [such as Israeli] descent. In previous censuses, many identified as "white." But last year the Trump administration nixed that idea, announcing that the MENA category will not be included. Now, with a year to go before the decennial count, community advocates are gearing up to do outreach in the hope that people self-identify as Middle Eastern and North African on census forms so there's a more accurate count of a population that, in terms of data at least, is pretty much invisible. But not everyone agrees on which box they should check. More