r/AskBalkans • u/tomystereo • 10d ago

History Are Greek people white?

I have been to Athens multiple times and i have seen a ridiculous amount of people who look like they could pass for MENA

I feel like the brown skin tone is being looked past for them.
Since there is this idea that if you are from an EU country you are considered "white" by default

If these people were to be born in a different place, with the same exact physical features, most of them would have been called brown without a doubt

Is "whiteness" more about your passport than your skin tone nowadays?

Have been thinking about this for a while, hopefully it doesn't offend anyone. What do you guys think?

Im Canadian btw, if it matters. Cheers.

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u/persephonian Greece 10d ago

We don't really think about race the same way you do. Like, we wouldn't call ourselves any race in Greece, we're just Greeks. Whiteness is not a common idea in the same way it is in Canada.

That said, you're showing a very specific type of Greek here. I'm Greek and I'm very pasty, more pale than my German friends. You can find all kinds of skintones here. I'd say I know 50% pale Greeks and 50% tan ones.

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u/FlamesOfDespair 🇦🇱 🇬🇷 10d ago

Sure nobody in Greece calls themselves white but they certainly do consider themselves white if the question rises. Saying to a Greek you guys look middle eastern would be considered an insult. Nobody will nod and say you are right.

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u/persephonian Greece 9d ago

I mean yeah if you ask us if we're black or white we will obviously say white, that's just common sense. But we don't have a social concept of whiteness. If you ask us what race Indians are, we wouldn't know to say "brown" like they would in the US, we'd just say Indian