My Mexican friend, who is quite light-skinned is mistaken for White all the time. Some people are just misinformed and/or uneducated about what the term entails. They immediately associated any swarthy West Asian, as being exactly the same as a Southern Italian. Even though Southern Italians are more European than MENAs are on average. If this is what qualifies as "White" in America, then you seriously need to reexamine what "Whiteness" is.