askchapo

Along the lines of @rootsbreadandmakka@hexbear.net's contribution, Arab immigration to the US increased by orders of magnitude during the 60s and 70s, principally to add a super-exploitable labor force for auto manufacturing who would initially have a language barrier to organizing. This is when a large number of non-white passing Arab people came to the US. Although as was said, the official category had already been established decades earlier, principally by Christian Arabs from Syria

I also think Christendom was the decisive element in this case since in the same year the Supreme Court 1) denied 'white' status to a Japanese man who argued his skin was paler than most 'white' people's because he was not of Caucasian descent and 2) denied 'white' status to an Indian man who argued on those grounds he ought to be considered white because Northern Indians are of caucasian descent because his skin was too dark.