Are Spaniards White or Middle Eastern?

Question

Are Spaniards White or Middle Eastern?

Answer 1

Spaniards, like people of the Middle East, are fully Caucasian. They both can have the Mediterranean look: dark hair, and eyes, and light to medium brown skin. Spaniards are not Middle Eastern though.

Answer 2

Genetically, they are closely related to Western Europeans, especially British. They do have some portion of Arabs and North Africans because parts of Spain and Portugal were once ruled by North African Arabs. Genetically, North Africans themselves have intermarried with the Arabs when the Arabs invaded North Africa and converted the people into Arabic speaking Muslims.



This Arab-North African genetics can also be found in some Latin Americans, which was carried out by the Spanish.

Answer 3

White

Answer 4

All Europeans have Middle Eastern ancestry, since Middle Easterners were the ones who civilized Europeans. Before Middle Easterners arrived in Europe, the first human populations of Europe were cavemen and cavewomen who just hunted and gathered. Middle Eastern farmers killed most of the cavemen then raped the cavewomen, creating modern Europeans.



Spaniards and other Southern European have North African ancestry as well, but that's due to 800 years of Islamic Moorish colonization of Spain. Not to mention North Africa is very close Southern Europe, both areas had strong seafaring cultures so there were a lot of interaction and invasions, genes flowing back and forth, between both areas.

Answer 5

The area now called Spain was under African Arab control for nearly 700 years. So, I guess it just depends if you're talking about a Mozarabic or a Spaniard.



(The Spaniards will claim most Mozarabics were cleansed during the Spanish inquisition, but we know the ones that converted were allowed to stay, marry and have children)

Answer 6

Spaniards are white Europeans who look basically the same as the French, Italians, or Portuguese.



Spain's second largest immigrant group is the Moroccans, who are Arabs. They used to be the largest immigrant group, but the Romanians recently surpassed them.



So you may be seeing some of those... some Spaniards may also look Arab because of the Moors, who were an North African Arab civilization that made conquests into Europe, especially the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal are. However, the Spanish were at constant war with the Moors for hundreds of years because it was Christianity versus Islam. After the Spanish finally reconquered the last of the Arabs in the south of Spain, they passed edicts expelling Muslims and Jews from Spain. Those who stayed by converting to Catholicism (or falsely converting) were called "moriscos" and were discriminated against legally and socially. They were later kicked out as well by another edict by the king of Spain.



So as a result, SOME Spaniards have substantial Arab blood, but to generalize it to all or even most Spaniards is totally inaccurate. The vast majority of Spaniards are essentially just white Europeans.



"Many of the Spaniards I saw walking around Spain I would just assume were Arabs."



So if you went to the UK and saw "many" black people, would you be asking if British people were white or black? Of course you wouldn't.



Here is a Spanish crowd:

https://cryptome.org/info/spain-protest2/pict3.jpg



Here is an Middle Eastern (Iraqi) crowd:

http://www.iraqicivilsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B9-18-01-2013.jpg



So what exactly are you telling me? You saw some people in Spain who you thought were Middle Eastern. Does that generalize to a country of over 40 million people? I don't think so, lol... I think the difference is pretty clear.



Regardless, I chose the term Arab because I think it more clearly describes who we are talking about. There are many obviously white Middle Easterners who could pass as Europeans, which, as a result, means many Europeans can pass as Middle Eastern as well, even the blonde and blue eyed ones.



To add onto that, it was actually the Spanish that first started using the term "white" as a race, and they applied it to themselves and to other Europeans. So yes, they are white.



I don't mean to be rude by the way, so please don't take offense to anything I said.

Answer 7

Spaniards don't usually look like Arabs. What kind of Arabs are you talking about anyways?



Crazy Americans.

Answer 8

They're Polynesians, obviously.

Answer 9

The people of Spain are a mix of people of the Iberian peninsula and other Mediterranien groups. As far as I know the Basque people are the original Spanish, and then others came including the Romans, the Moors, and others. Yes, they are considered White.

Answer 10

They're European; therefore, they're considered white. Spaniards have descendants from Spain. That means European; that means white.

Answer 11

White European.



Spain is nowhere near the Middle East so why would they be Middle Eastern? 😕