AFAIK Arabs were still considered white all the way into the 1960s. It wasn’t until American adventurism in the middle east the classification changed. Latinos were considered non-white prior to WWII. There weren’t enough Latinos to make up segregated units like the Black Panthers or Red Tails, so they were made white to be assigned to white units. After WWII, their whiteness was revoked.
side note: Alec Guinness did brown face in Lawrence of Arabia and worked with a lot of Arabs to develop the role. I suspect they may have thought nothing of it (Guinness or the Arabs coaching him) because of the race classifications of the time. The role still should have gone to an Arab actor, though.
AFAIK Arabs were still considered white all the way into the 1960s. It wasn’t until American adventurism in the middle east the classification changed. Latinos were considered non-white prior to WWII. There weren’t enough Latinos to make up segregated units like the Black Panthers or Red Tails, so they were made white to be assigned to white units. After WWII, their whiteness was revoked.
side note: Alec Guinness did brown face in Lawrence of Arabia and worked with a lot of Arabs to develop the role. I suspect they may have thought nothing of it (Guinness or the Arabs coaching him) because of the race classifications of the time. The role still should have gone to an Arab actor, though.