It's racism. Pure and simple.

making a racism accusation I assume the SIL must be black or Asian.

It could be the accents.

it, in Biblical times, Chaldea was located on land that sits in what we now consider Iraq. If so, I am not sure there is a huge distinction between being ethnically an Arab and being a Chaldean. As best I can determine, Chaldean is a subset of Arab, or one type of Arab.

My father's brother married a woman whose father was Assyrian (IOW, my paternal uncle's father in law). Assyria, I believe is similar to Chaldea in that it, too, no longer exists as a separate nation, but was located on land that is within what we now call Iraq. Babylon as well, I think. He, too was an Arab, albeit a Christian Arab.

What do you see as the difference between tracing your ancestry back to Chaldea and being a subset of "Arabs" or one kind of Arab?

I don't know what the connection between the term and the historical nation of Chaldea, but knowing many Chaldeans in Detroit, they were ethnically Iraqi, the term only distinguished their Christian Faith and culture.

called "Iraq" in biblical times. Still, the entire Middle East in biblical times was ethnically, in today's terms, Arab, Persian or Israeli, full stop. Redrawing lines on a map and re-naming countries doesn't change that.

Whatever religions people may have followed then or now, they were Arab, Israeli or Persian. It's cool, I guess, to call yourself Assyrian, or Chaldean or Babylonian, but, AFAIK, it's all modern-day Iraq and Arab, whether Jewish Arab, Christian Arab, pagan Arab or atheist Arab, much as Copts are Egyptians.

In "biblical times" "Arabs" were people who lived in Arabia, not the greater Middle East. That entire region was a mishmash of many, many ethnic groups.

But that's not pertinent to my comment, which was that, regardless of their ancestry, the Christians of Iraqi origin I know in this country refer to themselves as Chaldeans.

I am not saying these people are Arab, not Chaldean. I am saying they are Chaldean and Arab. that Chaldean is one of many types of Arabs. "Arab" is panethnic, as is "Jew" since the diaspora and "European" today. "Arab" covers many ethnicities of that region.

In biblical times people of the village of Pers (or something like that) were the Persians, despite the Persian Empire. Total, the land that used to be Pers is in Iran. The people of Pers may claim to be the only true Persians, but today, they are Iranians. (Not a great example because people from all over Iran refer to themselves as Persians because many nations, including the US favor that more than "Iranian", but try to put that aside. Also not a great example because Iran is only one country. )

Actually, while this is an interesting question intellectuallyy, I don't know what turns on it. There is nothing wrong with being an Arab. There is nothing wrong with not being an Arab. Chaldeans are part of the group that used to be known as Semites before the definition of that term became controversial and that is close enough for any purpose of mine that I can think of right now.

So, I will leave it there.

People were seemingly confused as to what "Chaldean" meant, that's all. No judgment intended.

And they face persecution back home, even genocide.

what your post to me adds or alters. "They are Chaldean, not Arab or Muslim" is where this discussion started, namely in the OP.

Even if face persecution or worse back home, that doesn't determine whether they are Arab or not. Chaldean is ancient nationality as to a country that no longer exists. Arab is not a nationality, even in Saudi Arabia. We seem to be posting at cross purposes.

And you're probably right. However, living with and observing a community that is in agony and watching helplessly the genocide that is taking place back home because of their religion, it seems a bit crass to nit pick over their precise racial or ethnic background. They're Chaldean, it should be obvious why they identify as such, and that is enough.

was that nothing was wrong with being a Muslim. (There, I confess Iwas thinking of McCain: no ma'am. He's not a Muslim. He's a decent American." As if Muslims can't be decent Americans.)

I did not question their self identifying as Chaldeans. AFAIK, I was not discussing the matter with any Chaldeans and was certainly not trying to hurt any Chaldeans and have no reason to want to hurt them or to add to their agony, which I certainly did not cause and would love to see ended.

I knew the name Chaldea from childhood reading of the Bible and knew roughly where it was. Therefore, I found the statement that Chaldeans were not Arabs startling. So, I explored it some. If you can quote something I post that was crass or hurtful to anyone IRL, please do.

If you simply find my exploring a statement that was contrary to what I had assumed since my childhood years crass and in any way connected to genocide and agony, I disagree. In any event, before you posted, I had posted that I was leaving the subject (Reply 13), and I had left it, until your post. I am not sure what the goal is here.

If fear for them regardless of whether Trump, Sanders, or Mother Theresa is elected. When war broke out with Germany in 1917, a wave of anti-German hysteria, fueled by propaganda-infused superpatriotism, resulted in open hostility toward all things German and the persecution of German-Americans. As progressive as he was (for his time), President Wilson and his administration had begun to discuss seriously the issue of German-American loyalty and approved a plan to use volunteers to gather information on German immigrants and native-born German-Americans suspected of potential disloyalty.

As the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety put it, “the test of loyalty in war times is whether a man is wholeheartedly for the war and subordinates everything else to its successful prosecution.” This black and white interpretation of loyalty left no room for diverging viewpoints—people against war on principle, or on religious grounds, people who questioned the justice of the war and the Wilson Administration’s goals (including socialists, who tended to believe the war was really about Wall Street profits). Even remaining silent was equated with giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Soon there were calls to throw out the German language and “all disloyal teachers.”

The names of German food were purged from restaurant menus; sauerkraut became liberty cabbage, hamburger became liberty steak (the first time I heard the phrase 'Freedom Fries', I began growing concerned). Even German measles was renamed liberty measles by a Massachusetts physician. Superpatriots felt the need to protect the American public from contamination via disloyal music by pushing to eliminate classic German composers such as Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart from the programs of community orchestras. Some states banned the teaching of the German language in private and public schools alike. In July 1918, South Dakota prohibited the use of German over the telephone, and in public assemblies of three or more persons.

Elihu Root, a distinguished American statesman, remarked that there were men walking our streets “who ought to be taken out at sunrise and shot for treason.” John F. McGee, head of the Minnesota Safety Commission, urged the use of firing squads to wipe out “the disloyal element” of his state. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels intoned that “we will put the fear of God into the hearts of those who live among us, and fatten upon us, and are not Americans.” A California representative more bluntly stated that the nation would benefit from “a few prompt hangings.”

So regardless of who gets elected, I don't think the American tradition of finding, blaming and punishing scapegoats will ever be quenched.

My daughter lives in El Cajon and her father in law (a raging Cruz supporter) who manages condos there wants them to get a gun because of ISIS growing in El Cajon. I told her that other than a few Somali immigrants we saw in Lakeside a decade back who were encouraged to leave by some of the Chaldeans who had been buying up property in the area, most of the Muslim immigrants are living around us, in between downtown and Lemon Grove.
While it is true that there's low-level "conflict" between the Evangelical churches and the Chaldeans due to "No True Christian" effect between sects, it's not at the level of physical violence. It's primarily business and political posturing.

Her FIL is f'n ignorant. But then again, between the bad drugs and dumb-jockery of his youth (lots of head trauma involving testosterone or beer), his capability to engage in more complex considerations are severely limited. To him, anyone who is even slightly dark from a country not in Europe beginning with "I" or with a squiggly alphabet is a muslim terrorist. It makes it easy for him, just like his favorite mega-church preacher, who tells him what to watch and what/who to vote for.

Haele

Food is the great uniter, I tell you. And there is nothing better than home cooked dolmas.

Most Islamophobes are racists who think "Middle-Easterner" and "Muslim" are synonyms. I know an Assyrian guy who gets called Islamophobic slurs regularly.