Apparently it's something people believed at one point in history; that the Caucuses region is where Noah's arc landed and is thus the region where white people originated. As a non-Christian, the term is absolutely ridiculous.
It’s a skin color, and in the US all these questions are really trying to ask that.
If your father is from Ireland, but you are dark skinned then you will suffer the same prejudices and abuses as anyone or your skin color. If your father is Kenyan and you are light skinned, you will smoothly fit in with the “white majority” without anyone digging into your history.
The context of US race questions is to counter US racism. Logical etymology doesn’t really apply.
It goes beyond simply color. For example, there are people who are racist against East Asians, and if you only showed them the color on a palette, that wouldn't be enough for them to think anything of it. They'd have to see other features, and suddenly this data field has gone from text to imagery.
> If your father is from Ireland, but you are dark skinned then you will suffer the same prejudices and abuses as anyone or your skin color.
If your ancestors came to America and were Irish, they faced discrimination just as much as other groups, if not more than most, even if they had a similar color tone as other Europeans.
For one, while the Irish faced discrimination, it was significantly less than that of non-Europeans. More importantly though, how does this have any bearing on why the question is relevant today? Are you somehow under the impression that the Irish are currently subject to extensive prejudice, or that no racialized group is?
