pollywollydoodah submitted:

Hi! I would like to start this off by saying that I really appreciate this blog and that I am so glad that I’m not the only one who thinks about these things. 

     I just wanted to draw attention to the term “Caucasian” and how it is usually used to refer to those who are “White” or “of  ”European decent”.The Caucasus is a region bordering Europe and Asia that in includes the countries Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan,…etc. , it also includes parts of Iran and Turkey. 

    As a person of Armenian decent myself, I am olive skinned with uncontrollably thick, dark, and curly hair. Much like someone from the Middle East. Don’t get me wrong though, there are plenty of Caucasians with a lighter skin tone and lighter hair, but there facial features aren’t like those of Northern Europeans. SO… no matter how long they stay indoors, or how much bleach they dump over there skin they still probably never look like a white person. Ever.

Thanks for reading. :)

this post isn’t meant to offend anyone, if I have somehow done so , I am sorry.

CC: Thank you for submitting this!!!! This reminds me of a blogspot post I wanted to post here because I wasn’t sure if I had already posted it before, but it accurately explains why the term “caucasian” actually has racist origins that have been institutionalized into modern day usage.

I’ll post it separately as well but here is a link and a quote from said blogspot post:

CAUCASIAN IS A DIRTY WORD

I read it on forms. I hear it conversation. And most annoying of all, people refer to me as such. I’m talking about the word Caucasian.

Sure we’re all trying to be PC when we invoke the formal racial title for a group of people we absolutely must designate. African American for blacks, Asian American for Asians, etc. But a history of struggle and racism called for such designators and more importantly, such designators as chosen by the people in question. It only follows that when making racial proclamations where you wish to include white folks, your brain will pause a moment to search for the nice formal self-designated word for whitey. Unfortunately, the word that comes up is Caucasian.

But where did that word come from and how did it rise to the lofty position of designated the white race as a whole? Some might be surprised to know, that like most racial designators, the history of the word Caucasian is racist, inaccurate and flawed. I’m writing this in order to bring light to this dirty word and hopefully work to remove it from our politically correct vocabulary.

Where is Caucasia?

I asked that same question when I was a wee lad first trying to divide my world into discrete boxes. Turns out, there really is a Caucasia. According to the mighty wikipedia this region is interesting for the following reasons:

• It’s considered the “border” between Europe and Asia
• Not surprisingly, the peoples and languages are extremely diverse
• Noah’s Arc mythically landed in the Caucasus Mountains
• Some human skulls were found there.

It’s that last point where we start. Popularized by a Joseph Friedrich Blumenbach, these Caucasian skulls were considered so modern (in the anthropological sense) and so well-formed that they must be the ancestors of the white race. Blumenbach goes on to compare them to the skulls of the pure and beautiful German race and even gives us an insight to his Georgian fetish:

[These skulls] produces the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgian; and because all physiological reasons converge to this, that in that region, if anywhere, it seems we ought with the greatest probability to place the autochthones (birth place) of mankind.

By “mankind” Blumenbach of course meant white people who were tainted along the way to produce the other, inferior races. Please see the summary on wikipedia for Caucasian race for more hilarity.