I always like posts that make me go off and look up something new. One thing I noticed while perusing Arab-American sites is that the US Census categorizes Arab-Americans as "white." I remember during homeschooling once we were talking about race and ethnicity, and how people get defined as "white" vs. "non-white" (for instance, the Irish were considered "non-white" back in the 19th c.) My guess is that (imagine that!) most Arabs would be largely indistinguishable from any general US or European population not composed of Nordic blonds.
I'm not complaining that LOST cast Naveen Andrews in LOST (he's a gorgeous man, LOL), but it's interesting on several accounts, and again, I wouldn't have thought of it had you not pointed it out. Naveen's character, Sayid, is a former military officer under Saddam Hussein, who worked as an "interrogator" (read: torturer.) His character is complex, and he is not in any way cast as a "bad guy." However, in the first season especially, he is seen as a scary "Other" by at least some of the castaways.
I saw that Andrews' parents come from Kerala, on the west coast of southern India. The little I know of Indian history tells me that there has always been a kind of divide between Northern and southern India. Some of it comes from the Islamic Moghul invasion/conquest, which held the northern 1/2 of the country for several hundred years. Some of it is that northern Indians are considered to be of Aryan, i.e. Turkish-Caucasoid ancestry, while southern Indians are darker and considered to be "non-Aryan." So Naveen Andrews might be an "other" playing an "other." Curioser and curioser...
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I'm not complaining that LOST cast Naveen Andrews in LOST (he's a gorgeous man, LOL), but it's interesting on several accounts, and again, I wouldn't have thought of it had you not pointed it out. Naveen's character, Sayid, is a former military officer under Saddam Hussein, who worked as an "interrogator" (read: torturer.) His character is complex, and he is not in any way cast as a "bad guy." However, in the first season especially, he is seen as a scary "Other" by at least some of the castaways.
I saw that Andrews' parents come from Kerala, on the west coast of southern India. The little I know of Indian history tells me that there has always been a kind of divide between Northern and southern India. Some of it comes from the Islamic Moghul invasion/conquest, which held the northern 1/2 of the country for several hundred years. Some of it is that northern Indians are considered to be of Aryan, i.e. Turkish-Caucasoid ancestry, while southern Indians are darker and considered to be "non-Aryan." So Naveen Andrews might be an "other" playing an "other." Curioser and curioser...