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Americans have been historically more accepting of MENAs than South Asians. This may be because the region was perceived as somewhat of a periphery to Europe rather than completely different. Compare the Near East with the Far East. I don't know if you would consider the United States as a functional nation state or not.
Caucasian in the United States demography originally meant European only until 1909 when Lebanese Christian George Shishim won his case with Department of Justice to include Near-Eastern people as White/Caucasian. One argument appealed to the public desire for Jesus to be classified as White.
https://www.arabamericanhistory.org/...-race-in-1909/
In 1923 Punjabi Brahmin Bhagat Singh Thind lost his federal case to have Indians counted as Caucasian despite anthropological evidence because the common American did not consider them Whites/Caucasian.
https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5076/
The inclusion of MENAs yet exclusion of South Asians in the term Caucasian in the US is more based on common European Americans identifying more with the former due to Christianity. Academic anthropology was not a major factor.
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