DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Personal experience or do you Southern Europeans hate being called mixed?

**steerryGritly** · 03-30-2011, 07:05 AM

I'm not an expert, but wouldn't it make sense that since Italians & Spaniards etc come from the more sunny part of Europe they should have darker skin than northern Europeans anyway?

They reckon there is Iberian blood in Britain and Ireland which causes the tanned complexion (similar to those seen in Spain and Italy etc) one often sees in Welsh and Irish people , the result of an Iberian settlement here 15,000 years ago- long before the Moors invaded Europe. So if those Iberian genes alone can cause a dark, Mediterranean complexion in people that suggests the Italians/Spaniards could be dark by Northern European standards without there being any African or Arab ancestry there.

As for the issue of Whiteness, well being White generally implies that you are accepted as White in a given cultural setting ('Whiteness' in America for example encompasses a lot more ethnicities today than it did 200 years ago). I would consider southern Euros to be White, that's based on two things- firstly the fact that they have a European phenotype and secondly that they are Europeans culturally, whatever quantum of African blood they may have wouldn't change that.

White is not a very meaningful designation outside of ex-colonial nations with large White populations i.e. America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, NZ etc

03-30-2011, 07:05 AM	#16
steerryGritly Join Date Nov 2005 Posts 317 Senior Member	I'm not an expert, but wouldn't it make sense that since Italians & Spaniards etc come from the more sunny part of Europe they should have darker skin than northern Europeans anyway? They reckon there is Iberian blood in Britain and Ireland which causes the tanned complexion (similar to those seen in Spain and Italy etc) one often sees in Welsh and Irish people , the result of an Iberian settlement here 15,000 years ago- long before the Moors invaded Europe. So if those Iberian genes alone can cause a dark, Mediterranean complexion in people that suggests the Italians/Spaniards could be dark by Northern European standards without there being any African or Arab ancestry there. As for the issue of Whiteness, well being White generally implies that you are accepted as White in a given cultural setting ('Whiteness' in America for example encompasses a lot more ethnicities today than it did 200 years ago). I would consider southern Euros to be White, that's based on two things- firstly the fact that they have a European phenotype and secondly that they are Europeans culturally, whatever quantum of African blood they may have wouldn't change that. White is not a very meaningful designation outside of ex-colonial nations with large White populations i.e. America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, NZ etc
	Quote