I’m only a junior, but scholarship applications and other things are asking me about my race and I’m confused on what to put down. I was born in America and my parents were born in Pakistan and India. Both of their parents were born in India, bu there parents are Arab on my dad’s side and Persian on my mother’s side and are of that ancestry. Naturally since my grandparents and parents were immigrants to India and Pakistan they were Persian and Arab, but since my parents moved to the U.S. from Pakistan I thought I was Asian even though I don’t look Pakistani or Indian, but Arab and Persian. What do I put down as my race? Mixed Asian and White? Just White? Just Asian? What is the correct way to report it.
Sounds like you are Arab and Persian. Is that a choice or do Indians/Arabs/Persians have to check Asian? Generally, Asian is an over represented minority and will not help you on applications… so if I had to check Asian, I would prefer to check “did not report”
Put white. Persians/Arabs are Caucasian.
The US census definition of “white” includes people with origins in the Middle East, which conventionally includes Iran and several Arab countries (among others). The US census definition of “Asian” includes people with origins in the Indian subcontinent.
Northwest Iran touches the region known as Caucasia, but the inhabitants there are mostly Azeri, as opposed to Persian. It is not an area where lots of Arab people live.