(June 2011). White ethnic is a term used in American sociology to refer to whites who are not of Northern European or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant background. They consist of a number of distinct groups, and within the United States make up approximately 9.4% of the population.he term white ethnic carried the connotation of being blue collar, northeastern or Midwestern. The term generally refers to white immigrants and their descendants from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus.