Talk:Middle Eastern Americans

Armenia

Not considered a part of the Middle East. Wikipedia has a list of Middle Eastern countries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.95.17.106 (talk) 03:38, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

Since when were these countries in the Middle East?

Azerbaijan? It's in Europe! And Pakistan? South Asia. And LOL @ Bangladesh. Seriously? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.45.120.40 (talk) 23:56, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

• You are correct about Bangladesh, so I will generously and sympathetically grant you permission to remove it. Azerbaijan is considered a "Middle Eastern" country, with a small portion in Europe. Most ethnic Azeris in fact live in South Azerbaijan, which is in Iran. Not Azerbaijan. Pakistan is counted as "South Asian" and therefore they are Asian American, even though it is considered as part of the "Greater Middle East." For demographic purposes, a Pakistani-American is called Asian by the glorious powers of the supreme leadership of the United States Government. All people of Middle Eastern and North African descent are counted as White American by the U.S Government, but not by white people themselves or the KKK. The Scythian 12:56, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Sources

Where do the sources mention a single word about the Central Asian republics being added to this designated bracket of Middle Eastern American? As far as I see, I can't see a SINGLE reference about it. As of now, I only see Afghanistan added by User:Scythian77, wich is nation both in Central Asia and South Asia, but no other 100% Central Asian republic such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc, is added. Sounds like bogus to me.

Regards - LouisAragon (talk) 23:19, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

gallery

How is Summer Bishil of Middle Eastern descent exactly ?? This article needs to be clearer.. a lot of ethnic Europeans have spent time on this region of the world but would never be considered ethnic Middle Eastern. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.17.89.249 (talk) 18:31, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Census ethnicity chart

There has recently been some effort to include Jews among other ethnicities tabulated in the chart from the census records. Although consensus on Wikipedia is that Jews are Middle Eastern, it is misleading to include the ~6.5 million number alongside the other numbers from the census. This is because, as explained in the paragraphs immediately preceding and following the census table, the US Census only counts those who volunteer ethnicity data and self-identify on the census as belonging to one of these groups. In contrast, the 6.5 million number for Jews (as well as the 3.7 million for Arabs) is not calculated in the same way and is more accurate than the census, since it also attempts to estimate and include those who did not self-identify on the census. Hence, these additional numbers are not directly comparable. Further, inclusion in the chart implies that this number comes from the Census, which it does not. This is why I put the more accurate estimates of the number of Jews and Arabs outside the chart; the chart is for raw census data only. In short:

1. The new numbers are not directly comparable to those from the census.

2. The new data is not from the census. Musashiaharon (talk) 09:47, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Then perhaps the chart should reflect the Middle Eastern American numbers in general and we should include the citations of both the census data and any other sources. The chart is already incomplete as is.Jeffgr9 (talk) 15:19, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

That might resolve #2, but then we still have problem #1. Musashiaharon (talk) 18:22, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Last time I checked, Jews were around 2% of the U.S. Population——it seems pretty comparable to the data taken here. Because Jews are Middle Eastern Americans, they should be included on a chart of Middle Eastern Americans, and therefore the latest numbers that I put in, without the approximate signs (~) should work congruently with the other groups' data. In any case, each group should have a data source available for citation, so that they may be updated and to which people may reference in the future.Jeffgr9 (talk) 23:54, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

One person on the census is not comparable to one person in the Jewish population estimate, since the census only counts those who volunteered their ethnicity. The number for Jews includes all Jews, whether self-identified or not. For every person who self-identifies ethnically on the census, there are few more of the same ethnicity who decided not to answer. As a result, the census drastically underestimates the actual population. That's why they aren't comparable. The organizations aren't measuring the same kind of quantities, and you can't make direct size comparisons between them. Musashiaharon (talk) 05:24, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

I would agree that the census does not serve as the most accurate population counting system——but neither is any counting system. All statistics are approximations, and sample sizes of 30 or greater from a comparable population size——i.e. the total U.S. Population in 2000 and 2010——are considered "significant." In this case, the numbers provided by both the census and Dashefsky and Skeskin are both statistically significant sample sizes from the total United States 2000 and 2010 populations. The chart should either have better sources, like that of Dashefsky and Sheskin (which is not perfect in it of itself), or it should be temporarily put down until a better chart with better sources can replace it. It just does not make sense to exclude Jews from this chart——both sets of data are statistically significant, and all of these groups are Middle Eastern. Thank you.Jeffgr9 (talk) 06:42, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

In general, there is a policy against removing material, unless we can replace it with something better. How about if we build a new chart containing independent estimates of the populations of all these groups? Musashiaharon (talk) 19:53, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Agreed. Thank you very much. Jeffgr9 (talk) 20:00, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Unless there is a problem with the census, the information yielded from how people self-identify is used universally on comparable articles in Wikipedia. Per WP:NOR, your WP:PPOV for inclusion or exclusion of ethnic sub-groups, adding extraordinary WP:CALC data, plus any other amendments are irrelevant as Wikipedia is an encyclopaedic resource. Please don't tamper reliably sourced data by introducing WP:SYNTH. If there were RS specifically contesting the legitimacy of the census data, that could be noted in the body of the article in a 'criticisms' section. As there is not, there are no legitimate circumstances under which 'rebuilding' the table is in order. Thank you both for your understanding. --Iryna Harpy (talk) 02:38, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

move?

Shouldn't this article be moved to "Middle Eastern Americans"? Lots of similar moves occurred on Wikipedia recently. Gringo300 (talk) 13:18, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

 Done Correct, Gringo300. There was consensus for the plural form for ethnic groups using the plural form about a month ago. There are still going to be some stragglers that weren't picked up on via the categories. Thanks for drawing my attention to it, and please feel free to ping me should you find any more such articles. Cheers! --Iryna Harpy (talk) 21:31, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Middle-Eastern philosophy which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 11:47, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Alphabetizing needed

Many of the names are in alphabetical order, but then restart at some point during the list. I am not versed in the technological angle, but there must be some way to make them all alphabetical, no? Thanks! Elle Kpyros (talk) 18:13, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

Jews are not per default Middle Eastern

Of course, the origins of the Jewish people are in the Middle East, but that doesn't make each and every Jew a Middle Eastern person. E.g. Albert Einstein was German, American, and Jewish, but why should someone want to call him Middle Eastern ? There is a discussion about this question currently at Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard#Are_all_Jews_to_be_called_"Middle_Eastern"_? and the idea that all Jews could be called Middle Eastern has got virtually no support. --Rsk6400 (talk) 07:01, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

The lede from this page this:

"Middle Eastern Americans are Americans with ancestry, origins, or citizenship from the Middle East."

And you keep repeating the same false premise. Of course converts to the Jewish religion are not inherently Middle Eastern. But ethnic Jews are of Middle Eastern ancestry. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 15:33, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

@Bob drobbs: - Then provide reliable, official U.S government sources stating that anyone whose Jewish is "automatically Middle Eastern/West Asian American". Otherwise, this is all WP:Original research. This source here about the proposed "Middle Eastern American" category doesn't state that anyone whose Jewish is automatically "Middle Eastern American".[1] In fact, here's a list of proposed of countries, they include Israel, but no mention that all Jews should be part of category. "Israel is among the countries that census officials say would comprise people of such a Middle Eastern identity, as is “Palestine.” Others countries in the proposed new category include: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen."

Here's the U.S definition of "Western Asian" (again, they mention Israel, but don't make any mention about anyone whose Jewish as automatically being "Western Asian").[2] Western Asia includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The census record breakdown here doesn't say that all Jewish people are part of the West Asian/North African label.[3]. This article on Middle Eastern immigration to the United States mentions immigrants from the MENA region, and doesn't say that all Jews are automatically part of the "Middle Eastern immigrant groups". [4] This 2021 article on Asian immigrants in America lists Israel as part of Western Asia, but it doesn't say that all Jews are part of this label.[5] Here's a quote: Western Asia includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Some of the countries included in the U.S definition of North Africa are Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and so on.

As @Rsk6400: says, this is ridiculous to automatically label every Jewish person as being "Middle Eastern" or "Western Asian" or whatever. Are we going to consider Stan Lee as being a "Middle Eastern American" simply because he's Jewish? On a tangent, are you we going to categorize Pamela Anderson as being a South Asian Canadian or South Asian American simply because she's part Romani, and they originally came from South Asia about a thousand or so years ago before migrating all over the world? Please provide WP:reliable sources explicitly stating without any doubt that all people of Jewish origin (including for example, an American of Ashkenazi Jewish background whose family came from Central/Eastern Europe) are part of the "Middle Eastern American" label. Clear Looking Glass (talk) 03:30, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

@Clear Looking Glass: As an example of the issue, one American hero is included on the superhero page because one grandfather (who was a Chinese nomad) was born in North Africa. At best he's 1/8 Arab. I'm not sure what you believe since you've never spelled out your criteria, but do you consider him to be "Middle Eastern"? The bias here is a double standard where anyone seeming Arab-Muslim like is included by default and Jews are excluded by default.

Please provide WP:reliable sources explicitly stating without any doubt that anyone with any ancestors born in the Middle East (including for example a Chinese nomad grandfather) are part of the "Middle Eastern American" label. If you cannot, can we begin the process of deleting every Middle Easterner where there isn't a specific source that refers to them as "Middle Eastern"?

As for the census breakdown and some of your other sources, they speak of the location of birth or where they traveled from. By these standards, a Syrian Arab who was born in the UK would be counted as "British". Are we going to be skipping the entire idea of "ethnicity" for the inclusion criteria and just refer to the locations people came from or lived in? I've got no problem so long as the inclusion criteria is free from bias and applied equally. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 16:14, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

I argue Jews ARE Middle Eastern

Jews are Middle Eastern apart from converts to the Jewish religions. Jews are aMiddle Eastern ethnic group, they are not ethnic Europeans. Their ancestors came from Ancient Judea so they remain Middle Eastern. Although every ethnically Jewish person is not included as as West Asian in the US definition, that does not mean they are not genetically West Asian. Jews are genetically different from Europeans, they are closely related to the Canaanite peoples. Arab people describe themselves as Middle Eastern with no problems, but when Jews do the same they seem to be attacked verbally. If your ancestors come from Middle Eastern ancestry it is not ridiculous to call yourself ethnically Middle Eastern because Jews ARE ethnically Middle Eastern. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/dna-from-biblical-canaanites-lives-modern-arabs-jews (T96) Preceding unsigned comment by Tzofia1996 16:15, 5 April 2021

@Tzofia1996: Thanks for explaining your reasons here. Right now, there is a discussion going on at Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard#Are_all_Jews_to_be_called_"Middle_Eastern"_?. I'm afraid, your theory receives virtually no support there, and it has been discussed over and over again in the course of the last years, never gaining consensus among Wikipedians. BTW: Please remember to sign your comments. --Rsk6400 (talk) 19:45, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

@Rsk6400: The question you asked in Fringe Theories is if ALL Jews are Middle Eastern. Tzofia1996 did not say that. By your own admission, there ARE reliable sources that say ethnic Jews are of Middle Eastern ancestry. It's irrelevant if you personally don't like those sources. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 05:56, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

Ah, here come the SPAs, and wishful thinking together with them. I sincerely wonder in which external forum and with which rationale they are recruited. Place Clichy (talk) 17:45, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

WP:Deny recognition to this nonsense. American Jews descend from the Ancient Levant and many other places. So do most Americans. The special link between them and the Ancient Judaean Kingdom is a cultural and religious matter above all else. The only non-neutral attitude here is placing this "Middle Eastern" origin (the term itself is comical when referring to Antiquity) above all other elements of heritage that merged into modern Jewish identity(-ies). WP:BURDEN is on who comes with this weird notion to provide reliable sources showing that all American Jews, including your typical secular Ashkenazi New-York Jew (think Woody Allen or Noam Chomsky) are, commonly and consistently, primarily defined as "Middle Eastern" or "of Middle Eastern descent" on the sole basis that their unknown and untraceable ancestors left Judaea some time ca. 1st century AD/CE. The mere idea that Jews (or Judaism) "originated in the Middle East" in the 1st millennium BC/BCE, something that few would deny, is very far from this. Place Clichy (talk) 17:45, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

@Place Clichy: - All this back and fourth arguing with these users seems hopeless. It's clearly established that no reliable source on the U.S census, etc states that someone like Jeff Goldblum isn't European American, but rather Middle Eastern American. And nothing has been provided stating that all Ashkenazi/European Jewish Americans identify as being Middle Eastern and not European. If we're being truthful, all these labels are arbitrary and silly. Why don't these users here talk about how "biased" the Asian Americans page is because the U.S census definition excludes many Asian ethnic groups, like those from Western Asia (which is where most of the "Middle East" is)? Repeating the same "technicality" that the extremely distant and unknown ancestors of Ashkenazi/European Jews left the Middle East two thousand or so years ago doesn't change common sense or the definitions set up by the U.S government in modern times. Clear Looking Glass (talk) 05:21, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

@Clear Looking Glass: I agree with pretty much all of that. Place Clichy (talk) 10:34, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

@Place Clichy: In this quote, you are creating hurdles to be put on Jews and only Jews and not people of any other ethnic group:

"all American Jews, including your typical secular Ashkenazi New-York Jew (think Woody Allen or Noam Chomsky) are, commonly and consistently, primarily defined as "Middle Eastern" or "of Middle Eastern descent"

Zinedine Zidane is a French Football player. There's no evidence he identifies as primarily "Middle Eastern". Is he Middle Eastern? On the Superhero page a person who was only 1/8 Arab had been included. There's no evidence that he identified as primarily Middle Eastern, quite to the contrary they almost certainly did not. Yet they were included because they had a scrap of Arab Muslim ancestry. This pro-Muslim, anti-Jewish bias seems blatant.

So I ask you again. Why not join me in creating clear, unequivocal inclusion criteria that will be applied to people of all ethnic groups. Vote below! Does a single grandfather born in Algeria make you Middle Eastern?!? -- Bob drobbs (talk) 16:20, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

I don't think that Zidane is considered to be Middle-Eastern by anybody. I do not even think that he is considered Arab. Not only because French people despise ethnic tags, but also because if I remember correctly his parents are of Kabyle extraction, which in Algeria is different from the Arab Algerian population. It is even funny how when you cross a border (in this case from Algeria to France), the ethnic perception that others have about you changes, which is an indication of how vain and hopeless are these attempts to categorize people by challengeable ethnic and racial tags. Anyway, I think you are just talking to yourself by now. A user placed clear inclusion criteria on top of this discussion which is for the Middle Eastern Americans page (very very far from Zinedine Zidane). They are based on how these terms are usually understood in the U.S. context, based on reliable sources, neutral towards any ethnic group and not tainted by the good-faith but disruptive attitude which we call WP:Righting Great Wrongs. Happy editing. Place Clichy (talk) 16:45, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

@Place Clichy: Where are these RS that define what a Middle Easterner are? Can you please provide links? I tried to find support for the claim in the lede, and could not. It seems that the US Census actually does not define Middle Eastern at all 1. Other RS discuss only people who were born in or traveled from the Middle East. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 17:45, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

I removed the POV tag after it was explicitly criticized on WP:ANI#User:Bob_drobbs_flooding_discussions: the POV tags do not seem warranted given the balance of the discussions at this time. and In the FTN discussion, you argued for the claim that all ethnic Jews are Middle Eastern ... There was extensive discussion that followed, where a consensus was formed that this claim is fringe. --Rsk6400 (talk) 16:36, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

Yes, according to RS, ethnic Jews are of Middle Eastern ancestry. Whether they have enough Middle Eastern ancestry is an open question depending on what the actual criteria are. You can't reject reliable sources just because you don't like them, and you cannot change a page's inclusion criteria solely because you don't want Jews on it [[6]].

In some cases people who are 1/8 Arab have been deemed to have enough ancestry, so I clearly some Middle Ancestry is more than enough. This page continues to include non-Jews and exclude Jews based solely on subjective inclusion criteria. Until there are actual inclusion criteria, the tag needs to stay. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 01:28, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

Inclusion Criteria

@Clear Looking Glass: Please explain your decision to remove the sections about diaspora Jews. The lede for this article says that people with "ancestry" in the Middle East count. It also refers to the list of List of indigenous peoples. Under both of those standards ethnic Jews in the diaspora absolutely qualify.

You should not remove them simply based on your personal view that they're not Middle Eastern. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 15:46, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

@Bob drobbs: - I have provided you with various sources above in the "Jews are not per default Middle Eastern" section that don't state that anyone being Jewish is automatically "Middle Eastern" (as defined in the lede as being someone from Western Asia/North Africa). I have shown you what various United States statistics articles consider as being "West Asian", none of which state that all Jewish people are automatically part of this category. I have shown you an article from The Times of Israel about the proposed Middle Eastern American category. Among the listed countries was Israel, but it says nothing about how anyone being Jewish is automatically accepted as part of this label. Now maybe you should provide official sources stating that every Jewish person can be part of the "Middle Eastern American" category instead of personal opinions/WP:Original research. A Jewish person from one of the defined "Middle Eastern countries" can absolutely be part of this label. I haven't found anything saying that a Jewish American whose family is Ashkenazi Jewish/from Eastern Europe is automatically a "Middle Eastern American".

Are we going to consider Native Americans as being Asian Americans because they were originally from Asia? After all, shouldn't the Asian American label include all people with origins in Asia? Shouldn't West Asians be part of the "Asian American" label? Well, they're not considered as such because of the modern United States census definition. Clear Looking Glass (talk) 03:35, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

No, even if we would include Jews to this, we wouldn't ″consider Native Americans as being Asian Americans because they were originally from Asia″, and that's because their ethnogenesis occured in the Americas. As ethnic groups they are originally from the Americans. Their ancestors in Asia weren't yet ″Native Americans″. Jewish ethnogenesis happened in the Near East, which is what it means when people say that their origins are Middle Eastern; Jewish ethnicity is fundamentally Middle Eastern. From this point of view the Jewish populations in Europe were Middle Eastern populations in diaspora rather than just European populations, just like Persian Americans are still Middle Eastern (Americans) instead of being the same group as Native Americans, even if they were not born in the Middle East but in the same land where Native Americans live, because the ethnogenesis of the group they're still part of happened in the Middle East. –Fincl (talk) 11:46, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

@Fincl: That's original research, see WP:OR. There is not a single WP:RS to show that people like Einstein can be called "Middle Eastern". --Rsk6400 (talk) 11:52, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

The US government described a Syrian-Arab born in the UK as a "British white guy". Is this what you want to use as your criteria? -- Bob drobbs (talk) 16:42, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

@Fincl: - There are countless articles and studies showing that the Americas were settled by people from Asia/Eurasia, as shown in the Settlement of the Americas page. There are even several theories trying to connect certain Native languages to those in Asia. That doesn't change how they are categorized in modern times. If you want to talk about "ethnogenesis", then the Jews of Europe (the American Jews page states that 90-95% of the American Jewish population is Ashkenazi) are pretty much just European ethnically. They have European surnames, speak various European languages, and have lived in Europe for centuries. I don't see anything saying that people like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Stephen Spielberg and so on aren't "European American", and are all "Middle Eastern American" simply because they're Jewish. Jews from Israel and other countries defined as being part of the "Middle East" can obviously be listed on the "Middle Eastern American" page. But you still haven't provided a WP:RS showing that Ashkenazi/European Jews are automatically and undoubtedly included as part of the "Middle Eastern American" label, or that they all identify as being "Middle Eastern" or "West Asian", etc and not European. I have shown several articles showing what the United States government defines as being "Middle Eastern" or "Western Asian" or whatever. Clear Looking Glass (talk) 23:18, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

POV Notice. @Rsk6400: changed the inclusion criteria as described in the lede of this page, not based on any RS, not based on any agreement here, but solely based on a desire to exclude Jews:

"Changed "ancestry" to "background" - some people might be tempted to show that Jewish "ancestry" comes from the M.E. of some 2000 years ago"

It's been reverted so I won't add a tag, but attempts to exclude Jews and only Jews is 100% unacceptable. This page MUST have actual inclusion criteria -- Bob drobbs (talk) 16:43, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

It is the attempt to include non-Middle Eastern Jews in the first place that needs to be justified, not the other way around. Place Clichy (talk) 18:03, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

@Place Clichy:Here are two RS which say that Jews are of Middle Eastern ancestry. 1 2.

So whether or not ethnic Jews qualify depends solely on one's definition of "ancestry". Jews have been wrongly removed while this question is open, and the POV tag should be put back and remain until there is agreed upon criteria. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 18:16, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

There is currently a discussion at WP:ANI#User:Bob_drobbs_flooding_discussions. --Rsk6400 (talk) 18:52, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Vote here

• Born in the Middle East. Simple and clear. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 00:53, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

This RS from the lede, supports the idea that Middle Eastern Americans are those born in the Middle East. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 18:27, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Your definition isn't "simple and clear". Saying that this page should only be about Americans who were born in the Middle East excludes many Americans who claim/identify as being "Middle Eastern". It's like claiming that the pages for Asian Americans, or European Americans, or Hispanic and Latino Americans should only include Americans who were born in Asia or Europe or Latin America, when many Americans who claim to be "Asian" or "European" or "Hispanic/Latino" were not born in those regions. There is nothing that will satisfy every user, but the page is fine and there's no problem beyond you can a few users who keep mentioning the Jews. Though we could remove the mention of "North Africans" in the lede, because aside from Egypt, they're not considered part of the "Middle East" and there's already a page for North Africans in the United States. Clear Looking Glass (talk) 06:53, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

@Clear Looking Glass: "Born in the Middle East" is absolutely simple and clear, and seems to be supported by every RS in the lead. It also seems to reflect a large majority of the people currently listed on the page.

... excludes many Americans who claim/identify as being "Middle Eastern".

There has been no problem so far with removing people who identify as Middle Eastern from this page (so long as they're Jewish). The standard proposed for Jews above, but not other groups, is that there must be a RS for each and every individual saying they primarily identify as "Middle Eastern". Are you proposing that as the standard for all people? -- Bob drobbs (talk) 02:33, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

• I think there's a pretty clear solution: described by RS as Middle Eastern or as having been born in or having a nationality of the Middle East (and the equivalent for establishing that they are American). Which in my opinion is just a direct application of WP:V. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 03:00, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

• Reject the premise of this vote. Ethnicity/race categories are complicated, subjective, hotly debated, and occasionally redefined. Trying to settle on a formal inclusion criteria would be fruitless. Regular content disputes over who counts or not are to be expected.

Personally, I would include someone on this list if they are mentioned in RS as being Middle Eastern, as being another ethnicity that falls almost exclusively in the broader category (e.g. Arab American), or as having a recent ancestor who is from a Middle Eastern country. Those are fairly complex criteria and I readily admit that they are imperfect and are probably both under- and over-inclusive. I used the word 'recent' and am comfortable with good-faith debate about whether, for example, a great-great-grandmother from Syria counts.

Others might be using their own informal criteria; I'd guess most are similar to mine. We can have good-faith content dispute based off of the differences. It might lead, with a long collective effort, to some consensus building on inclusion criteria.

This current discussion is not that. It's just a smokescreen for fringe theories, including that all people who are ethnically Jewish are Middle Eastern or that only immigrants from the Middle East count as Middle Eastern Americans. If editors can bring extraordinarily persuasive evidence for those WP:EXTRAORDINARY claims, I am open to changing my mind. Firefangledfeathers (talk) 03:29, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

I agree with Clear Looking Glass, Rosguill, and Firefangledfeathers. There are some differences between the latter two, but I think they can be resolved if there really should arise a dispute over the inclusion of some single person. The important thing is that Albert Einstein is not a Middle Eastern American, Barack Obama is not a German American (although the Anglo-Saxon ancestors of his mother came from Germany in the 5th century), but an African American (although not born in Africa), and Joe Biden is not an African American (although all our ancestors came from Africa long ago). --Rsk6400 (talk) 18:38, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

Firefangledfeathers's comment sums up very well the opinions expressed on this page and the related discussions on other pages that spilled on here (such as the superheroes page and FTN). Place Clichy (talk) 20:57, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

Templates

@RiverNile1: Regarding the template "African immigration to the United States": I think that one template is enough, and since the template "North Africans in the United States" already covers the immigration from the African part of the Middle East, the other template seems to be superfluous. Regarding "European Americans": The number of Americans who come from regions which can be called European as well as Middle Eastern is so small that it seems insignificant in relation to the vast number of European Americans from Britain, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and so on. I also fear that too many templates won't help our readers, but rather confuse them. --Rsk6400 (talk) 17:52, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

Georgia

I cited four sources ( and I add another one ) in which it is shown the fact Geogia is normally considered more related to Europe than to Middle East However, Datu Hulyo removed my addition, saying my sources were insufficient. Seeing his contributions, it seems the user in question has an exclusive concept of Europe, and cancels every other addition which states more inclusive definitions, a behaviour which is in contrast with Wikipedia's principle of Neutral Point of View. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.10.49.25 (talk) 14:13, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

References

North African Americans and infobox

@Dêrsimî62: I had to remove the infobox again, because it only contains unsourced information. WP:V is a core policy of Wikipedia. Also: I don't think that a list that contains virtually every religion in the world (except for Buddhism and Hinduism) is not very valuable. And how do we know that there are no Middle Eastern Americans having converted to Buddhism or Hinduism ? The claim that North Africans can be called "Middle Eastern" is WP:SYNTH at best. Rsk6400 (talk) 15:59, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Arabs and Arab World

@Alexysun: The first sentence already mentions immigrants from the Arab world. So, IMHO, we don't need to use two words stemming from the root "Arab". As I understand the sentence, it mentions first stateless ethnic groups, then states. Rsk6400 (talk) 11:36, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

Yes it does first mention stateless ethnic groups and then states. I'm not sure I like how the sentence is structured. Why do the geographic regions trump the ethnic groups?

Alexysun (talk) 21:33, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

I'm also not happy with the sentence as it is. What do you think about deleting the whole sentence and just saying "Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background." ? Rsk6400 (talk) 20:02, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

@Rsk6400 Thanks for checking for replies even though I didn't ping you. I didn't check until now lol.

Yeah, I think that'll work. You can implement it.

Alexysun (talk) 04:14, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

Ashkenazi Jews are probably not Middle Eastern. Mizrahi yes.

Now I'm not Ashkenazi Jewish, or Jewish at all, but if you know your stuff about different types of Jews, you'll know that Ashkenazi Jews are from Europe and the European countries and have lived there for hundreds of years. You'll also know that Mizrahi Jews are the Jews that lived in the Middle East + North Africa / the Muslim world. You'll also know that most American Jews are Ashkenazi Jews. Therefore I believe the statement "10.5-11.0 million including American Jews" in the infobox is incorrect. Alexysun (talk) 21:13, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

@Patapsco913 Hi, I noticed you were the one who added the data on Jewish Americans. Please read and let me know what you think. Alexysun (talk) 21:21, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

@Alexysun Hello, I added the population since the definition in the header indicates Middle Eastern background. Ashkenazi Jews have Middle Eastern background. The definition for Latino Americans includes those of full or partial Latino descent. Jews are of full or partial Middle Eastern descent. It seems to make sense to mention the number of Jewish people in the US since they are of Middle Eastern descent. Patapsco913 (talk) 21:47, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

It will interesting to see how Ashkenazi Jews respond to the 2030 US Census which will have a Middle Eastern and North African category. Ditto for Turks.Patapsco913 (talk) 21:48, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

True. Up to them to decide. Alexysun (talk) 22:10, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Yes this is true, they have Middle Eastern background, though Ashkenazis have lived in Europe for hundreds of years, so I'd say this is pretty nuanced and comes down to what they feel.

Though now that I think about it, Middle Eastern Americans is not an official Census category yet, so no official numbers have come out yet, so including all Jews as Middle Eastern would not necessarily be wrong as you can be both Middle Eastern and European I guess in terms of genetics and maybe culturally too.Alexysun (talk) 22:17, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Well, why not include all Christians ? Christian religion originated in the Middle East. Are there any reliable sources to summarily include all Mizrahi or even all Jews ? Please take a look at the red hatnote. Rsk6400 (talk) 05:51, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

Well the key difference is that Jews are an ethnic group and religion combined (ethnoreligion), while Christians are not. Also, why are you telling me to take a look at the red hatnote? Alexysun (talk) 05:35, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Because the red hatnote links to a discussion at the fringe theory noticeboard. The point is, do you have reliable sources ? Rsk6400 (talk) 06:16, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

You should be directing this question to @Patapsco913, not me, as I was the one who raised the issue initially. Secondly, did you read my original question? It seems you misunderstood that I was posing a similar question. I don't appreciate a response that carries an air of superiority without fully understanding the context of the discussion. Alexysun (talk) 21:37, 31 July 2024 (UTC)