Why do we call European "white' yet they are pink or a colour next to that?

Answer 1

My skin is very nearly white most of the year, since I live in a cold northern climate. It's pretty close to the off-white colours of paint, I've compared it with paint charts. I'm only ever partially pink if sunburned, so pink or orange is hardly a good description of northern Europeans.

Answer 2

I don't know: why do you call European "white"? I'm European and I'm black. And there's quite a few of us across the continent too.

Answer 3

Because white and black are opposites, while more true descriptions of skin tone like beige and the various shades of brown are too similar for people who feel the need to define people by their physical features and therefore presumed ancestry.

Answer 4

Scientifically, neither white nor black are classified as colors.

In fact, white is the state where there is a total absence of color, and black is the state where there is a total presence of all known colors.

Anthropologically speaking, the terms are used simply as a type of short-hand.

Answer 5

we have in the world white skins , yellow skins , red skins and black skins . which of all those have exactly that colour ?
Although different definitions of "White" vary, the most common feature is that the term refers to Caucasoid or Aryan people descended from Europe not to the colour of their skins .

Answer 6

no one is actually whitey white(unless he has a disease) and no one is BLACK or ebony black(i mean the actual black colour)..............
the people that are called white are actually a little pink or light yellow colour.......and the people that are called black are either brown or very dark brown(except for the ones who live in deep africa...they are of a little black colour that is darker than the other blacks)........
but these names of races(white and black)were made up by people just to narrow the slight diversty in a particular race.......if not ,we would have said for blacks=light brown,dark brown,yellow brown....etc................for whites we would say=light yellow,pink white,olive white,orange white!! and much more.............so whats better......you choose by yourself.......i think that less diversity in one race is better as it will make it simpler...!
Peace....

Answer 7

because we superficially label people just by the colour of their skin, which as u pointed out is generalising. I find it amusing that those who would be racist spend a lot of time working on their tans....

Answer 8

Why do we call Africans black when their obviously not
Why do we call the Chinese yellow when their obviously not
Race,creed,colour,what does it matter!!!!we are all the one human race

Answer 9

It keeps things simple. There are thousands/millions of different skin types and our brains would explode if we had to list them all.

Answer 10

We're not all one thang y'know..im British, so im Caucasian. You can be Mediterrainian, Slavic, Nordic etc