people of color & Chicano

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Well, Caucasian has little to do with the Caucasus, since it's from
>Caucasoid and that's from the same group as Negroid and Mongoloid.

Originally I think some anthropologist thought that the people of the
Caucasus showed the physiognomies most typical or quintessential of the
"race" characteristic of most of Europe, India, and the Middle East. A few
years ago (maybe still current), I saw the larger "races" named Caucasoid,
Mongoloid, Congoid (replacing "Negroid"), and smaller ones named Capoid and
Australoid -- all named after places. A more sophisticated approach
involves gene frequencies as publicized by Cavalli-Sforza. All politics
aside, classifications of this type may be useful/necessary in medical
contexts, although less often than the layman might think. Of course, in
forensic pathology, some classification is useful (although sometimes
problematic): one can't productively inquire of an anonymous corpse what
its opinions are regarding its ethnicity.

In the US, I think until recently there was little immigration from
southern Asia, so "Caucasian race" = "European race" was natural. I
remember some question among South Asian immigrant acquaintances around
1975 as to whether they were "Caucasians".

I suppose -- for example -- among educated English-speaking laymen in India
there is a different traditional racial lexicon. It would be interesting to
compare such conventional classification schemes.

-- Doug Wilson