Friday, September 10, 2010

Don't these folks look white to you?

Ray Lahood





















Tony Shalhoub



George Mitchell





















Diane Rehm




















Doug Flutie

An anonymous reader claimed in the post on Hispanic assimilation that only European Caucasians are considered white in the United States. I posted the photos of the first five people listed at the Famous Arab Americans page of the Arab American Institute. They all look white to me. Are there whites out there who disagree?  Go to the website and read about the others--some might surprise you. I don't know if any of these folks here have mixed ancestries, and I don't have time to look into it, but the Institute says they're Arabs. I see Arabs when I attend Orthodox church. They look like white folks to me, but I can't speak for others.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:24 AM

    Ray Lahood is half-German (mother).
    George Mitchell's father was Irish.
    The others to my knowledge are unmixed Arab ancestry (they can also easily pass for Jews, IMO)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:28 PM

    Arabs from Lebanon and Syria are generally the lightest of all Arabs. If I'm not mistaken, all of the people in the pictures are of Lebanese or Syrian descent.

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:16 AM

    Probably only the half-Irishman (although not in other photos on image search) and the football player (possibly I'm giving him more latitude due to handsomeness), were my immediate reactions. This is a Western European perspective, mind.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1:16 PM

    Tony Shalhoub made a career out of playing Italians, Greeks, Jews, and other white ethnics. Of course Levantines and Armenians are basically white ethnics with interesting food.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous9:36 PM

    Tony Shalhoub made a career out of playing Italians, Greeks, Jews, and other white ethnics.

    Not really. His most famous role by far was Adrian Monk, a character of no particular ethnicity.

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  6. fwood11:09 PM

    Monk is his best known role, but my favorite performances by him are of Italians: the taxi driver from the sitcom Wings and the chef in Big Night.

    ReplyDelete
  7. He was great as the slick defense attorney in the Coen Brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There.

    ReplyDelete

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