#a: that’s a HEAVY generalisation and still doesn’t represent the scope of what swana people look like
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This map got me thinking so here’s a few examples of undoubtedly south west Asian and North African people who I know (for even if you don’t want to admit that Jews are from the Middle East) who look like they could be from Europe
My mother, she’s a full Iranian Jew and while someone from south west Asia could recognise her as being from there, Europeans see her skin tone and think she’s like, at the most Southern European
One of my teachers is an Iraqi Jew, he’s definitely not the archetype of ‘brown Middle Eastern’ because he’s paler than me lol
A family friend is half Moroccan Jew and half English (convert mother so no Jewish dna on that side). She fits in without any doubt in Britain. I’ve looked at pictures of her dad too, and he’s not Northern European looking to me, but he’s definitely not North African (well more swa cause he was a Jew but whatever) to the Brits
My cousin’s boyfriend is an Algerian Jew, he’s got a mid-light skintone with an undertone and black hair. Is he now from Italy?
Really, a lot of middle easterners DO look like they’re from Italy, or from the Mediterranean in general, or from the Balkans (yes even the bits further away from Turkiye). Because the swana region is much more north than people think, and there isn’t in fact a magical force field between there and Europe that meant that humans in Greece and humans in Libya developed fundamentally differently. Please people when you’re looking at those photos also look at a map I love humanity but I am also very tired of people being dumb
I remember that when everything was happening with Noah Schnapp, so many people were saying that ‘he’s a white coloniser!’ ‘he’s clearly European!’ and ‘how are we supposed to think he’s indigenous to the Middle East when he looks like that?!’ They were screaming so much about he couldn’t possibly be from the swana region due to being pale, despite the fact that… wait for it…
Noah Schnapp is a Moroccan Jew.
The exact the same thing happened with Jerry Seinfeld too, despite him being a Syrian Jew.
But what this tells me is that so many American and European leftists fundamentally do not understand what North Africans and Southwest Asians look like. They do not understand that many Middle Eastern groups are pale, many Middle Eastern groups share features with Europeans— I mean, the Middle East literally borders Europe, did you not expect us to have similarities? This stretches back to the ancient world too. We know that in Yehuda there were gingers, as shown by King David*. Iirc, studies on Rameses the second’s remains show that he most likely had an olive tanned complexion and reddish-blondish hair, similar to a European Mediterranean look— which makes total sense seeing as Egypt is literally a Mediterranean country as well
It’s not just Jews. Persians, Kurds, Assyrians, Copts, Amazigh, Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula**, all of these ethnic groups are incredibly diverse in their features, even without any significant genetic influence from other areas. You cannot just project American and European black and white concepts of race onto the Middle East and act as if that is reality. The world is not split into pale people in the north, brown people in the middle, and black people in the south, and if you genuinely believe that then you really need to look at some pictures of the groups that you’re claiming to be the defender of. Please. I’m so tired of this bullshit lol
*I know that the historical evidence for David is shaky at best and we’re not sure if he was real or not (I personally believe it’s a King Arthur sort of situation where there was a real person here that got turned into legend), what I’m trying to say is that if the Ivrim could have a figure like this who was ginger, then the Ivrim clearly had gingers. Nobody come for me please
**not adding other Arabs because there tends to be genetic mixes with other groups, and my point is about how even without distinct genetic markers from each other, middle easterners groups can turn out with a super intense variation in appearance, especially skin tone
#I know I’m retreading ground here but this is just something that’s always gnawing at me and I need to let out frustration haha#also I’d like to point out that there are features that swana groups share commonly#yellow and olive undertones#Northern Europeans tend to have sharper and more angular faces. Going south there’s a lot of wider jawlines and shorter faces#Jews specifically have the heavy lidded dark eyes and they’re beautiful and I love that I have them#skin darkness and hair colour are not at all part of those features#and even those features mentioned before. Two things#a: that’s a HEAVY generalisation and still doesn’t represent the scope of what swana people look like#and b: SO MUCH of this is shared with Europeans#look at pictures from Southern Europe especially (and even going a bit more north to like Romania or Croatia or whatever)#and you’ll recognise ‘Middle Eastern’ features#look at pictures from the Middle East#and you’ll recognise ‘European features’#jewish stuff
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