Jesus was white

I wouldn't call that White. White for me is Northern European. "Caucasian" traditionally referred less to skin color than facial features. In the bad old days of racialized anthropology, you could be "Caucasian" but not actually White.

 

so by your standards, Spaniards, Portugeese, Southern French, Italians, Greeks, Bosnians, Serbs, Albanians, Crimeans, Bulgarians, are not white?

lol!!!!!

 

Do they look like Levantine or Middle Eastern people though? If so, I would not call them White like Northern Europeans. That said, migrations of Northern European groups like Germans and Slavs into Southern Europe are historically documented.

 

Only KKK and Neo-Nazis believe that you have to be white skinned, blue eyed, and blond hair to be white.

 

Of course the definition of Whiteness is arbitrary, as is all racial taxonomy. Nonetheless the fact remains that, even if Middle Eastern people are West Eurasian or "Caucasian" in certain respects, they're still darker than Northern Europeans and thus are conventionally excluded from the White category by many people.

 

in appearance, many Levantines are "white".

I work with a Lebanese guy who would be called "white" by most people.

I don't care if some bigots think only northern europeans are white.

 

Funny you say that, because it sounds to me like you're trying to claim Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures for Northern Europeans by extending Whiteness to them. I could just as easily call that Eurocentric and racist.

 

now you're just saying dumb (*)(*)(*)(*).

I consider all Caucasians to be synonymous with "white", unless of course they are VERY dark skinned, like people in India.

it has nothing to do with racism.

genetically, Levantines have more in common with Europeans than black Africans.

 

grate logic

guess this means contemporary americans look just like ancient americans then. history channel was right all along.

 

yes, current native americans look pretty much like their Pre-Columbian ancestors.

 

nice, very mature.

of course contemporary 'levantines' i.e israelis have more in common with europeans genetically, BECAUSE ISRAELIS ARE EUROPEAN!

smh

 

majority of Israelis are not European.

 

yes of course and ancient israelites looked like charlton heston.

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sure theyre not, theyre israelis.

 

I never disputed that Levantines were West Eurasian, nor have I argued for a predominantly African affinity for them. If you want to conflate West Eurasians as a whole with White people, I suppose I can't stop you. Race is an arbitrary social construct after all. Just don't be surprised when people look at you funny for applying a traditionally Northern European label to Jesus.

 

only you are saying white=northern european.

this is your personal bias.

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wtf are you talking about???

why would you not believe that full-blooded native americans look like their pre-Columbian ancestors???

what do you think they DID look like???

Oh, I see, you think pre-columbian Americans were black. lol!!!!

 

The very fact that you created a thread titled "Jesus was white" says to me that you're trying to shock people who don't identify ancient Palestinians with White Europeans. Ergo, you already know a lot of people out there don't share your all-encompassing definition of Whiteness.

If you actually look at J0NAH's original quote, he's contrasting the original Native Americans with the current US population which is not of predominantly Native origin. Even many of the people in the US who are enlisted in Native American nations (e.g. Johnny Depp) have enough European or other non-Native ancestry to look distinct from the first Native Americans.

 

I think the real acid test for Whiteness is to ask whether a group of people experiences discrimination as a non-White minority in the West.

Middle Eastern folk clearly do. They look different from Northern Europeans. You can clearly distinguish between an White American of Anglo-Saxon descent and an Arab or Mizrahi Jew. 1st century Jews weren't African but they weren't European either. They were swarthy or tan-skinned. You can call them Caucasian but Indians have also been labeled Caucasian and they aren't regarded as White either not even the lighter skinned ones. Race is a social construct. If we are going by American social standards then Jesus would not be considered White by the average American (assuming he even existed which is debatable). The people in the area where Jesus lived probably looked like modern indigenous Levantine populations today who are not considered to be White in the West.

 

FYI- J0NAH is a black supremacist and member of the Black Hebrew Israelites cult. He believes that ALL of Noah's sons were black and white people are the result of albinism or lepracy. He believes that King James and all the British aristocracy are descended from black people. He has before said he was white and then changed his mind and said he was not white.

 

In the absence of ancient DNA recovered from 1st century Jews, I believe the ancient testimony I cited earlier in this thread shows that ancient Levantine populations did have tan skin as you said:

That said, I don't think people living in a region today necessarily mirror the inhabitants from a few centuries back. There's a new paper out which shows that population migrations and displacements have been a norm throughout the modern human career:

Towards a new history and geography of human genes informed by ancient DNA

 

By American standards, Jesus would have been white, because according to the US census, anyone from europe, the middle east, and north africa is classified as white (or caucasian which is synonymous in the case of the census).

I'm a mizrahi jew, we aren't arabs. My family has origins in Iraq. Some mizrahi jews are white skinned, some are brown skinned. Plenty have blue eyes too and red hair and freckles.

Anyway Sefaradic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews are largely middle eastern genetically and some are quite dark skinned. Culturally they carry eruopean traditions and customs.

Most Israeli Jews are mizrahi, european jews are the minority. So its safe to say Jesus looked Israeli.

 

Some middle eastern jews have white skin and blue eyes and a lot have red hair. Some are whiter than europeans.

 

thats because theyre nordics who converted to judaism and moved to Israel.

 

According to the U.S. census yes but not according to the average White American. If you don't look like a Northern European in America you aren't White. Even darker skinned Southern Europeans have not been regarded as White by Americans of Northern European descent.

I was not aware that blue eyes and red hair was common among Mizrahi Jews. Do you have pictures? Do you think these traits are indigenous to the region?

 

If he's from Iraq, I think the chances are good that his ancestors had contact with the Persian Empire:

Now of course the Persians would have ruled over subjects of many appearances given their empire's geographic breadth, but Iranian peoples like themselves apparently originated from further north in the Russian steppes:

If you check the Goldenberg book I cited earlier, you'll see a quote from the Greek Sextus Empiricus describing Persians as white-skinned. I may not believe Jesus and his people were what we would consider White, but I'm not totally discounting the presence of fair-skinned types in the larger Southwest Asian region.

 

prove it.

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there are no middle eastern Jews with blue eyes and white skin.