In America, "white" is used instead of "European" because it's less ambiguous, since it distinguishes Americans of European ancestry from European citizens. Th

In America, "white" is used instead of "European" because it's less ambiguous, since it distinguishes Americans of European ancestry from European citizens. That being said, "white" is also ambiguous in other ways. It's generally not meant to be strictly speaking about skin color, since people with fair skin from certain parts of the middle east, for example, would not necessarily be considered to be white in this context.