It feels like white people are unique in this arrogance of deciding who is not white and telling them what race they are. I may be wrong in that feeling. But, I've personally never heard of anyone who wasn't white telling someone else what their racial identity has to be.

Interestingly (to me at least), my son has faced an odd reverse of this dichotomy among my kin. My kin insisted, and told him to his face, that he is white and American — and specifically not Persian as he self-identifies (his father is, as you may recall, a Persian immigrant from Iran).

Persian people in general struggle to be identified as Persian. To the rest of the white people, my son is Middle Eastern or Arab. Persians take strong exception to being identified as Arab. But, rightwingers seem to think everyone from the Middle East is an Arab. Many years ago, I told someone at work that my husband was Persian. They asked where Persians are from and another person said "Persians are Arabs from Iran." 🙄