White Skin

White Skin

White people, rather than being a straightforward description of skin color, is a term denoting a specific set of ethnic groups and functions as a color metaphor for race.

The definition of "white person" differs according to geographical and historical context. Various social constructions of whiteness have had implications in terms of national identity, consanguinity, public policy, religion, population statistics, racial segregation, affirmative action, eugenics, racial marginalization and racial quotas. The concept has been applied with varying degrees of formality and internal consistency in disciplines including sociology, politics, genetics, biology, medicine, biomedicine, language, culture and law.

Read more about White Skin:  History of The Term, Census and Social Definitions in Different Regions

Famous quotes containing the words white and/or skin:

    And when you sigh from kiss to kiss
    I hear white Beauty sighing, too,
    For hours when all must fade like dew....
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    It would be about as easy for an American to become a Chinaman or a Hindoo as for him to acquire an Englishness or a Frenchness or a European-ness that is more than half skin deep.
    Ezra Pound (1885–1972)