Blinded by Beauty?

Being raised in a Catholic setting and attending years of catechism classes had cultivated my image of Jesus to look like the statue of him that has stood in my hometown church for as long as I can remember. This Jesus is obviously being depicted as a man of Caucasian decent with light eyes, a short, well-kempt beard and virtually no body hair. While the bible makes no reference to Jesus’ appearance or race, considering the time and place of his life this is most likely a highly altered version of how Jesus actually appeared to others.

In fact, a friend of mine who is essentially an atheist would describe Jesus as "Middle Eastern, hairy and probably dirty, too." Naturally, to a Christian raised believer, this would most likely be offensive because that is not what their Jesus looks like and most people do not like their life-long mental images (especially one this influential) to be altered.

 Seeing as how I grew up with a heavy religious influence in my life and my friend was raise with none (maybe even a negative one) this begs the question, does our belief blind us to who Jesus really was? Are Christians and other believers taught to see Jesus as this beautiful, white, westernized version of himself so that we will be more inclined to love him and follow his words and teachings? 

 So what if Jesus' hair was not well groomed and parted perfectly down the middle as he is usually shown. This should not affect the way people view him in a bigger sense, should it? Looking at the world we live in today, it can clearly be seen that people respond better to aesthetically pleasing images. 

No one alive today (believer or non-believer) can really be sure what Jesus looked like. This poses a final question, when people claim to have visions of Jesus today, is it the viewer's version of Jesus or does he look like he historically should?