Middle Eastern and North African Americans may not be perceived, nor perceive themselves, to be White

Abstract

People of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent are categorized as non-White in many Western countries but counted as White on the US Census. Yet, it is not clear that MENA people see themselves or are seen by others as White. We examine both sides of this ethnoracial boundary in two experiments. First, we examined how non-MENA White and MENA individuals perceive the racial status of MENA traits (external categorization), and then, how MENA individuals identify themselves (self-identification). We found non-MENA Whites and MENAs consider MENA-related traits-including ancestry, names, and religion-to be MENA rather than White. Furthermore, when given the option, most MENA individuals self-identify as MENA or as MENA and White, particularly second-generation individuals and those who identify as Muslim. In addition, MENAs who perceive more anti-MENA discrimination are more likely to embrace a MENA identity, which suggests that perceived racial hostility may be activating a stronger group identity. Our findings provide evidence about the suitability of adding a separate MENA label to the race/ethnicity identification question in the US Census, and suggest MENAs' official designation as White may not correspond to their lived experiences nor to others' perceptions. As long as MENA Americans remain aggregated with Whites, potential inequalities they face will remain hidden.

Keywords: Middle Eastern; North African; White; race and ethnicity; racial categories.

Fig. 1.

Example of fictitious “immigrant” profile viewed by respondents in the external classification experiment.

Fig. 2.

Average marginal effects predicting classification as MENA among MENA and non-Hispanic White respondents. Results are based on SI Appendix, Table S2.

Fig. 3.

Average marginal effects predicting classification as White among MENA and non-Hispanic White respondents. Results are based on SI Appendix, Table S2.

Fig. 4.

Average marginal effects predicting classification as Black among MENA and non-Hispanic White respondents. Results are based on SI Appendix, Table S2.

Fig. 5.

MENA respondent self-identification across experimental conditions, Prolific sample. Respondents in the control condition were not offered a MENA response category. Respondents in both treatment and control conditions were instructed to check all categories that apply. See SI Appendix, Table S4 for results of a Pearson χ² test of the association between self-identification and treatment assignment.