As a racial classification, what is more accurate – white or Caucasian? It is helpful to determine how the term came into use. Use of the term “Caucasian” came into popular use in the late 18th century based on German anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s classification of humans into five categories based on physical characteristics. He established Caucasian as a race of humans which consisted of the native inhabitants of Europe, West Asia, the Indian peninsula, and North Africa, with a white color. He named this category after the Caucasus Mountain region, located between the Caspian and Black Seas, which he felt produced the most attractive physical characteristics. Today, Caucasian lacks any real scientific meaning, but hangs on as a blanket term for white/European people because the U.S. legal system made use of it to shape policy and the nature of its society. It is still used in many official government documents and it can be found used in social science and medical research and is used by some colleges and universities in their data collection and statistics.
The definition of “White” used in the 2010 U.S. Census refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, most Spanish speaking countries (South or Central America, or North Africa. The White racial category includes people who marked the “White” checkbox and also includes respondents who reported entries such as Caucasian or White; European entries, such as Irish, German, and Polish; Middle Eastern entries, such as Arab, Lebanese, and Palestinian; and North African entries, such as Algerian, Moroccan, and Egyptian.
The bottom line? Caucasian is included in White. White is not exclusive to being Caucasian. It is recommended to use terms that are more accurate, such as “European American” in place of using Caucasian to signify a geographical and American ancestry.
For further reading:
https://www.sapiens.org/column/race/caucasian-terminology-origin/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/50202/why-are-white-people-called-caucasian
https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-05.pdf
