Why are Iranians considered white? And why are Jewish people considered Asians?

-It's strange the way people link people to actually being one thing when they are another perhaps? Somewhere it was said that the above were true, it's just that most people don't know it, but they looked into the historical roots of it somehow? Just wondering how historians and archeologists linked it? What kind of proof did they use to form these theories?A theory is a sort of guess; when they can prove a theory it becomes a (scientific) law. That is why they speak of the Big Bang theory, the theory of evolution, and out of Africa theory: because no one has ever seen them happen, there is no proof.



Iranians are white; Jews are Asian.



Look up the definition of Asian: it means "eastern". The terms Asian and Oriental come from the Greeks and Romans; if you lived east of them, you were Asian/Oriental. If you lived in Spain, you lived west of them, so you were Occidental.



The white race originated in India, not in the Caucusus Mountains as claimed. So, people of India, Pakistan, all countries ending in "-stan", Russia, the Middle East, and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, all 21 countries in the Americas, are white (i.e., predominately white). There are mostly whites in Egypt and the Magreb and many in South Africa and other countries.



Neither of these things (Iranians = white, Jews = Asians) happen to be either archealogical or historical findings: they are solid facts, just as the sun rises in the east is a fact.
1. You'd have to ask each person the reason for why they categorize people as " white". Different people have different concepts about that (which IMO shows how fluid and subjective such racial categorization is). but in the old anthropological division of people into racial categories termed Caucasoid (aka Caucasian), Mongoloid and N* e_g _ *r_o_i_d (ridiculous Yahoo is not letting me even type the word) the Iranians would definitely be in the Caucasoid category along with Norwegians, Spanish, Arabs, Afghans etc.

It depends on how many categories someone wants to divide people into.

The concept of "whiteness" seems to usually be an Us versus Them thing. Some people from northern European background didn't used to consider Italians "white" . or at least not dark haired southern Italians.



2. As for why some may consider Jewish people Asians, well,the location they originally came from, where Israel is today, is on the continent of Asia. the very western edge of it, but it's Asia. So also Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Iranians, Iraqis, Saudis and a bunch of Russians etc. are all technically Asians. though usually when people use the term "Asian" about people they mean people whose ancestors came from farther east in the huge continent of Asia.



Of course, during many centuries in which the Jewish people did not have an official state, large numbers of them migrated to many other countries on several other continents so they adopted a lot of the culture of where they lived.
People originating in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa are classified as Caucasian. At what point does a person consider another white or non white is often times in the eye of individual person.

I was born with a skin cancer type pigmentation, red hair, blue eyes and I freckle and burn. Still when I am wearing something white, no way is it the same color as my skin. As far as I am concerned a tanned skinned Sicilian and a Spaniard from the southern tip of Andalusia is a white person if I am a white person. It is simply in the eye of the beholder. Being Asian doesn't necessarily mean a person is non white.



Edit: Northinguseful is right about the term Oriental. In the early part of the first millennium, Eastern Europe was considered oriental and western Europe Occidental.
Why are Iranians considered white?

They aren't. They are considered Caucasian, if you divide humanity into three races. Skin color has less to do with it than the shape of their heads and noses.



And why are Jewish people considered Asians?

They aren't. They are one of the Semitic peoples. Their ancestors came from the middle east. They too are Caucasian.
Race is determined, in Physical Anthropology among other variations within the human physical structure through Ethnic Linguistic Groups. A major branch of the Indo-European Speaking people settlements stretch from Central Asia through parts of the Caucasus Mountains to the Persian Gulf.

This population is primarily part of the Haplogroup R1a!(Y-DNA) .

In the Study of Anthropology Caucasoid people are divided in to three groups based on linguistic grounds: The Indo-European, Semitic, and Hamitic. That having been said, Indo-European and Semitic speakers are Caucasian. The people of Iran ans well as Israel are Caucasian.

Judaism is a religion and has nothing to do with Race.

You question has nothing to do with Genealogy, but I gave the most simplified answer from an Anthropological prospective.
How on earth can you consider a religion a skin colour.....you are taking complete rubbish...........................