Definitions of whiteness in the United States
Encyclopedia
The cultural boundaries separating White American
s from other racial or ethnic categories are contested and always changing.
David R. Roediger argues that the construction of the white race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slaveowners from slaves. By the 18th century, white had become well established as a racial term.
The process of officially being defined as white by law often came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship
. The Naturalization Act of 1790
offered naturalization
only to "any alien, being a free white person". In at least 52 cases, people denied the status of white by immigration officials sued in court for status as white people. By 1923, courts had vindicated a "common-knowledge" standard, concluding that "scientific evidence" was incoherent. Legal scholar John Tehranian argues that in reality this was a "performance-based" standard, relating to religious practices, education, intermarriage and a community's role in the United States.
The 2000 U.S. census states that racial categories
"generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria." It defines "white people" as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe
, the Middle East
, or North Africa
. The 1990 US Census Public Use Microdata Sample lists "Caucasian" or "Aryan" ancestry responses as subgroups of "White" but the 2005 PUMS codes do not. In U.S. census documents, the designation white or Caucasian overlaps with the term Hispanic
, which was introduced in the 1980 census as a category of ethnicity, separate and independent of race
. In cases where individuals do not self-identify, the U.S. census parameters for race
give each national origin a racial value.
The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation also categorizes "white people" as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe
, the Middle East
, or North Africa
, through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce.
, Germans
, Ashkenazi Jews
, Italians, Armenians
, Spaniards, Portuguese
, Slavs, Greeks
, Welsh
and many other peoples who were not English
. However, legally all these groups were white.
. In the 18th century, many persons of English descent harbored resentment towards the increasing number of German settlers. Benjamin Franklin
in "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.
", complained about the increasing influx of German Americans, stating that they had a negative influence on the early United States. The only exception were Germans of Saxon descent "who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased". Benjamin Franklin most likely thought favorably of the Saxons because Anglo-Saxons like him were thought to be the descendants of Saxon invaders to Britain
.
Unlike most European immigrant groups whose acceptance as white came gradually over the course of the late 19th century (that is, in U.S. colloquial definitions, since all Europeans had been white by legal U.S. definition), German immigrants quickly came to be accepted as white. By the late 19th century, despite some lingering nativist
resentment towards new arrivals, Germans, along with Scandinavians and the Dutch, were assimilated to the America's old stock, and thought themselves as racially superior to later immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.
More recent German immigrants, who arrived during the late 19th century, and their children occasionally encountered harassment due to the strong anti-German mentality that existed in the general American society during the first half of the 20th century. It was not uncommon for them to anglicize
their names and stop celebrating German traditions to avoid being discriminated.
In the 18th century Irish immigrants had the same rights and privileges as all other European settlers. In the 19th century, Irish Americans, often immigrants, were often discriminated against because of their Roman Catholic
religion.
According to historian George Potter, the media often stereotyped the Irish in America as being boss-controlled, violent (both among themselves and with those of other ethnic groups), voting illegally, prone to alcoholism
, and dependent on gangs that were often violent or criminal. Potter quotes contemporary newspaper images:
Irish Americans were always considered white but many thought they were inferior until the idea of white shifted to an identity that contrasted themselves with black slaves
and newer, less Americanized immigrant groups began to arrive. The Immigration Act of 1924
that was based on scientific racism
and favored the "whitest Europeans" to settle had a gentle view on Irish immigration.
of French
descent being regularly beaten and humiliated in school for being French-speakers
, French Canadians banned from entering the state, French immigrants having to anglicize
their names to avoid discrimination and even the Ku Klux Klan
targeting French Canadians who moved to the United States.
During the period between 1924-1965
, when immigration from European countries who were not considered Northwestern was restricted, French immigrants were only allowed to come in small numbers.
. Due to large numbers, legislation was also passed, such as the Immigration Act of 1924
to restrict and reduce their further entry. But they were allowed citizenship and full participation in American society.
A wide variety of ethnic groups from Eastern, South-Eastern and Central Europe: Greek
, Armenian
, Polish
, Albanian
, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Czech, Croat
, Bosniak
, Serb
, Romanian
, Russian
, Slovak
, Ukrainian
and Bulgaria
n, established communities in American major cities in the early 20th century, especially in New York City
and Chicago
.
occurred during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Italians often fell victim to stereotypes of criminal involvement, anti-Catholicism, ethnic and cultural prejudices, and violence. Anti-Italian violence caused lynching
in Tampa; and eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans, one of the largest mass lynchings in United States history. The Immigration Act of 1924
reduced the entry of Italians into the United States. Southern Italians, were classified as a different nationality
primarily at the request of their Northern Italian counterparts who were considered Alpine
or Nordic peoples more akin to French and Germans.
Today, some 17 million Italian American
to 25 million http://www.niaf.org/ Americans claim Italian descent. Most Italian Americans live within urban areas in northeastern states like New York
, New Jersey
, Connecticut
, Massachusetts
, Rhode Island
, Pennsylvania
, and Maryland
, but there are also numerous Italian Americans in states like Illinois
, Florida
, Ohio
, and California
.
, colonialists who were then originally Swedish citizens and settled in the Swedish colony New Sweden
, were supposed to have assimilated into the British
culture quickly. More recent Finns were on several occasions "racially" discriminated and not seen as white, but "Asian", before the beginning of the 20th century. The reasons for this were the at the time somewhat usual arguments and theories about the Finns originally being of Mongolian
instead of "native" (Indo-)European
origin due to the Finnish language belonging to the Uralic
and not the Indo-European language family.
On January 4, 1908, a trial was held in Minnesota
about whether John Svan and several other Finnish immigrants would become naturalized United States citizens or not, as the process wasn't for "colored" in general and district prosecutor John Sweet was of the opinion that Finnish immigrants were Mongols, not white. The judge, William A. Cant
, later reached the conclusion that the Finnish people may have been Mongolian from the beginning, but that the climate they had been living in for a long time and the to Finland historical immigration and assimilation of Germanic tribes (Teutons
), that he considered the modern "pure Finns" to be indistinguishable from, had made the Finnish population one of the whitest (fairest) people in Europe. If the Finns eventually had Mongolian ancestry, it was too distant and diluted to search for. John Svan and the others were made naturalized US citizens and from that day on, it was forbidden to treat Finnish migrants and Americans of Finnish descent as not white.
Despite being occasionally seen as "racially suspicious", there seem to be no known reports about Finnish Americans having been systematically stereotyped in a negative way. Sources seem to incline that they were rather spoken of in a positive light.
Hispanic Americans
Hispanic Americans are those whose ancestry can be traced to Spain
or Spanish-speaking Latin America
n countries. While Latin Americans
have a broad array of ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds, they all tend to be erroneously labeled 'Hispanic' - erroneously giving that term a "racial" value.
Recently, many Americans have opposed the separation of Hispanic from non-Hispanic, especially White Hispanic from non-Hispanic White, seeing it as a form of ethnic discrimination. This can be considered true given that all Hispanics, regardless of race, are included in Affirmative Action programs.
On the 2000 Census form, race and ethnicity are distinct questions. A respondent who checks the "Hispanic or Latino" ethnicity box must also check one or more of the five official race categories. Of the over 35 million Hispanics or Latinos
in the 2000 Census, a plurality of 48.6% identified as "White-Hispanic," 48.2% identified as "Hispanic-Hispanic" (most of whom are presumed to be mestizos), and the remaining 3.2% identified as "black-Hispanic."
The media and some Hispanic community leaders in the United States refer to Hispanics as a separate group from all others, as well as "whites" and the "white majority". This may be because "white" is often used as shorthand for "non-Hispanic white". Thus, the non-Hispanic population and some Hispanic community leaders refer to white Hispanics as non-Hispanic whites and white Hispanic actors/actresses in media are mostly given non-Hispanic roles while, in turn, are given the most roles in the U.S. Hispanic mass media that the white Hispanics are overrepresented and admired in the U.S. Hispanic mass media and social perceptions.
During periods in U.S. history when racial intermarriage wasn't legally acknowledged, and when Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were uniformly allotted white status, they were legally allowed to intermarry with what today are termed non-Hispanic whites, unlike blacks and Asians. They were allowed to acquire U.S. citizenship upon arrival; served in all-white units during World War II; could vote and hold elected office in places such as Texas
, especially San Antonio
; ran the state politics and constituted most of the elite of New Mexico
since colonial times; and went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Angeles
. Additionally, Asians were barred from marrying Mexican Americans because Mexicans were legally white.
U.S. nativists in the late 1920s and 1930s tried to put a halt to Mexican immigration by having Mexicans (and Mexican Americans) declared non-white, by virtue of their Indian heritage. They based their strategy on a 1924 law that barred entry to immigrants who were ineligible for citizenship, and at that point, only blacks and whites, and not Asians or Native Americans, could naturalize. The test case came in December 1935, when a Buffalo, N.Y., judge rejected Jalisco native Timoteo Andrade's application for citizenship on the grounds that he was a "Mexican Indian." Had it not been for the intervention of the Mexican and American governments, who forced a second hearing, this precedent could very well have made many Mexicans, the majority of whom are mestizo
, ineligible for citizenship.
During the Great Depression
, Mexicans were largely considered non-white. As many as 400,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans were deported in a decade-long effort by the government called the Mexican Repatriation
.
In the early 1970s, Chicano activists switched from the "other white race" to "the other minority" strategy as a way to fight discrimination. Just as whiteness once offered the best prospect of protected civil rights, the emergence of race-based policies such as affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act created incentives for them to highlight the nonwhite side of their mixed heritage.
In the 2000 U.S census, around half of all persons of Mexican or Mexican American origin in the U.S. checked white to register their race (in addition to stating their Mexican national origin). Mexican Americans are the largest White Hispanic group in the United States.
Hispanic Caribbean
Caribbean countries such as Cuba, Puerto Rico and especially the Dominican Republic have a complex ethnic heritage since they include indigenous and African legacies. Africans were imported to the islands in throughout the colonial period
(and indeed Blacks accompanied the first Spanish explorers, with more arriving to harvest sugar in the 20th century prior to the Revolution).
Cuban Americans exemplify this complex ethnic status. The Cuban exile
s that entered the United States before 1959 tended to be of European ancestry (most particularly Spanish ancestry
) and therefore widely considered to be white. Their appearance allowed them to be accepted more readily by an American culture that openly discriminated against darker-skinned Cubans
, and other races. In some cases, this white racial status "allowed them to feel superior over other racial and ethnic groups and to make claims to rights and privileges..."
Spanish American
All Spaniards were legally (though not always socially) considered "White" because of treaty obligations to Spaniards and Mexicans that conferred citizenship status at a time when whiteness was a prerequisite for U.S. citizenship. A Mexican American ex-politician of San Francisco said that Spaniards are not Hispanics because they are Europeans and white. Their appearance allowed them to be accepted more readily by an American culture and to be assimilated to non-Hispanic white society.
, state laws identified Native Americans
as white people during Jim Crow-era segregation.
In the late 19th and 20th century, Native Americans were seen as people without a future to be assimilated into a larger American culture. Tribal membership was frequently defined according to so-called blood quantum standards, so that "mixed race" children were eventually excluded. This led to the classification of increasing numbers of people with Native ancestry as white, a trend that has been reversed in the census figures of recent decades which show increasing self-identification as Native American. However, according to the 2000 census, you must know the tribe and maintain contact with that tribal community. "American Indian and Alaska Native. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment."
as white—European Jews in America did not become accepted as "white" until the 1940s. As early as 1911, German/American-Jewish anthropologist Franz Boas
(1858–1952) purported in The Mind of Primitive Man
, that "no real biological chasm separated recent immigrants from Mayflower
descendants." Therefore claims of difference were based on prejudice, whether religious or ethno-cultural, and had no biological basis.
Anti-Semitism
was prevalent in the world, including the United States, in the early part of the 20th century, but after World War II
, public attitudes toward Jewish Americans changed to more positive depictions, and American Jews enjoy a relative acceptance. Nonetheless, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists continue to deny them recognition as whites.
A person who responds Israeli to the Ancestry question in the United States Census
but refuses to respond to the Race question will be categorized as white, even though not all Israelis are of European (Ashkenazi
or Sephardi
) or Middle Eastern (Mizrahi
, or Israeli Arabs
, Druze
) descent. They may be Jews of Ethiopia
n (Beta Israel
), Yemenite
(considered by some a Mizrahi subgroup) or Indian
descent.
Asian American
Starting the mid-19th century, the United States experienced significant immigration from the countries of Asia, followed by reactions, such as the Workingman's Party
, against Chinese and later other Asian immigrants as competitors with white labor, and fears (Yellow Peril
) that Asians could outnumber the white population in some areas and become dominant.
The Naturalization Act of 1790
restricted naturalized American citizenship to whites. (However, United States v. Wong Kim Ark
in 1898 confirmed citizenship by birth in the US regardless of race.) As a result, in the early 20th century many new arrivals with origins in the Asian continent petitioned the courts to be legally classified as white, and hence there exist many United States Supreme Court rulings on their "Whiteness". Armenians (usually considered European) were classified by the courts as white with help from the testimony of anthropologist Franz Boas
. In 1922, the court case Takao Ozawa v. United States
deemed Japanese
to be not legally white, even though they had light skin, since it considered them to be part of the Mongoloid race
. Less than a year later, the court contradicted itself by concluding that Asian Indians are not legally white, even though a proportion of anthropologists classified some Indians as at least partially Caucasians, instead declaring that whiteness should be based on "the common understanding of the white man."
Associate Justice George Sutherland
found that, while Thind, an Asian Indian, may have had "purity of Aryan blood" due to having "high caste" status and being "born in Punjab" he was not Caucasian in the "common understanding", so he could not be included in the "statutory category as white persons
". Associate Justice George Sutherland
wrote in his summary:
In Jim Crow
era Mississippi, however, Chinese American
children were allowed to attend white-only schools and universities, rather than attend black-only schools, and some of their parents became members of the infamous Mississippi "White Citizens' Council" who enforced policies of racial segregation.
African American
Owing to the one-drop theory in the United States, Americans with any known African ancestry, no matter how slight, have often been categorized as black. Those of Hispanic, Middle Eastern or North African heritage have been an exception, in that those who look European, or occasionally even those appearing mixed, are not labeled "black" though they may have some sub-Saharan African ancestry, perhaps even acknowledging it.
Laws dating from the 17th century colonial America that defined children excluded children of at least one black parent from the status of being white. Early legal standards did so by defining the race of a child based on a mother's race while banning interracial marriage, while later laws defined all people of some African ancestry as black, under the principle of hypodescent
. These laws ensured that the children of slaves were available as labor to their parent's master and furthered racist standards of white women's "purity" under threat from black sexual "contamination." Some 19th century categorization schemes defined people with one black parent (the other white) as mulatto, with one black grandparent as quadroon
and with one black great grandparent as octoroon. The latter categories remained within an overall black or African-American category. Some members of these categories passed temporarily or permanently as white. Until the Civil War
, racial identity depended on the combination of appearance, African blood fraction, and social circle.
However, since several thousand blacks have been crossing the color line each year, the phenomenon known as "passing for white", millions of White Americans have recent African ancestors. A statistical analysis done in 1958 estimated that 21 percent of the white population had African ancestors. The study concluded that the majority of Americans of African descent were actually White and not Black.
, Jewish, Zoroastrian
, Muslim
, Shi'ite, or Sunni in the "Some other race" section are automatically categorized as whites in the 2000 US Census
.
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
s from other racial or ethnic categories are contested and always changing.
David R. Roediger argues that the construction of the white race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slaveowners from slaves. By the 18th century, white had become well established as a racial term.
The process of officially being defined as white by law often came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
. The Naturalization Act of 1790
Naturalization Act of 1790
The original United States Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790 provided the first rules to be followed by the United States in the granting of national citizenship. This law limited naturalization to immigrants who were "free white persons" of "good moral character". It thus left out indentured...
offered naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
only to "any alien, being a free white person". In at least 52 cases, people denied the status of white by immigration officials sued in court for status as white people. By 1923, courts had vindicated a "common-knowledge" standard, concluding that "scientific evidence" was incoherent. Legal scholar John Tehranian argues that in reality this was a "performance-based" standard, relating to religious practices, education, intermarriage and a community's role in the United States.
The 2000 U.S. census states that racial categories
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
"generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria." It defines "white people" as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, or North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. The 1990 US Census Public Use Microdata Sample lists "Caucasian" or "Aryan" ancestry responses as subgroups of "White" but the 2005 PUMS codes do not. In U.S. census documents, the designation white or Caucasian overlaps with the term Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
, which was introduced in the 1980 census as a category of ethnicity, separate and independent of race
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
. In cases where individuals do not self-identify, the U.S. census parameters for race
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
give each national origin a racial value.
The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation also categorizes "white people" as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, or North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce.
European Americans
Most persons considered White today might not have been considered White at some point in U.S. history. Among those not considered white by some people at some time in American history are the IrishIrish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
, Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
, Italians, Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
, Spaniards, Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
, Slavs, Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
and many other peoples who were not English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
. However, legally all these groups were white.
German Americans
Large numbers of Germans migrated to the United States between the 1680s and 1760s. Many settled in the English colony of PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. In the 18th century, many persons of English descent harbored resentment towards the increasing number of German settlers. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
in "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.
Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.
Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc. is a short essay written in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin. It was circulated by Franklin in manuscript, but in 1755 published as an addendum to another essay....
", complained about the increasing influx of German Americans, stating that they had a negative influence on the early United States. The only exception were Germans of Saxon descent "who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased". Benjamin Franklin most likely thought favorably of the Saxons because Anglo-Saxons like him were thought to be the descendants of Saxon invaders to Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
.
Unlike most European immigrant groups whose acceptance as white came gradually over the course of the late 19th century (that is, in U.S. colloquial definitions, since all Europeans had been white by legal U.S. definition), German immigrants quickly came to be accepted as white. By the late 19th century, despite some lingering nativist
Nativism (politics)
Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....
resentment towards new arrivals, Germans, along with Scandinavians and the Dutch, were assimilated to the America's old stock, and thought themselves as racially superior to later immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.
More recent German immigrants, who arrived during the late 19th century, and their children occasionally encountered harassment due to the strong anti-German mentality that existed in the general American society during the first half of the 20th century. It was not uncommon for them to anglicize
Anglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...
their names and stop celebrating German traditions to avoid being discriminated.
Irish Americans
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
religion.
According to historian George Potter, the media often stereotyped the Irish in America as being boss-controlled, violent (both among themselves and with those of other ethnic groups), voting illegally, prone to alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, and dependent on gangs that were often violent or criminal. Potter quotes contemporary newspaper images:
Irish Americans were always considered white but many thought they were inferior until the idea of white shifted to an identity that contrasted themselves with black slaves
History of slavery in the United States
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
and newer, less Americanized immigrant groups began to arrive. The Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
that was based on scientific racism
Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
and favored the "whitest Europeans" to settle had a gentle view on Irish immigration.
French Americans
There have been reported cases about children in MaineMaine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
of French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
descent being regularly beaten and humiliated in school for being French-speakers
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, French Canadians banned from entering the state, French immigrants having to anglicize
Anglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...
their names to avoid discrimination and even the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
targeting French Canadians who moved to the United States.
During the period between 1924-1965
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
, when immigration from European countries who were not considered Northwestern was restricted, French immigrants were only allowed to come in small numbers.
Eastern European and Slavic Americans
Slavic Americans were classified as legally white upon their arrival at Ellis IslandEllis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
. Due to large numbers, legislation was also passed, such as the Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
to restrict and reduce their further entry. But they were allowed citizenship and full participation in American society.
A wide variety of ethnic groups from Eastern, South-Eastern and Central Europe: Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
, Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Czech, Croat
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
, Bosniak
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
, Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
, Slovak
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...
, Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n, established communities in American major cities in the early 20th century, especially in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Italian Americans
Mass immigration to the United States from ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
occurred during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Italians often fell victim to stereotypes of criminal involvement, anti-Catholicism, ethnic and cultural prejudices, and violence. Anti-Italian violence caused lynching
Lynching in the United States
Lynching, the practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently in the South from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in the annual toll in 1892.It is associated with...
in Tampa; and eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans, one of the largest mass lynchings in United States history. The Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
reduced the entry of Italians into the United States. Southern Italians, were classified as a different nationality
Nationality
Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....
primarily at the request of their Northern Italian counterparts who were considered Alpine
Alpine race
The Alpine race is an historical racial classification or sub-race of humans, considered a branch of the Caucasian race. The term is not commonly used today, but was popular in the early 20th century.-History:...
or Nordic peoples more akin to French and Germans.
Today, some 17 million Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
to 25 million http://www.niaf.org/ Americans claim Italian descent. Most Italian Americans live within urban areas in northeastern states like New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, but there are also numerous Italian Americans in states like Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Finnish Americans
The earliest Finnish immigrantsFinnish American
Finnish Americans are Americans of Finnish descent, who currently number about 700,000.-History:Some Finns, like the ancestors of John Morton, came to the Swedish colony of New Sweden, that existed in mid-17th century....
, colonialists who were then originally Swedish citizens and settled in the Swedish colony New Sweden
New Sweden
New Sweden was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement. New Sweden included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania....
, were supposed to have assimilated into the British
Anglo-America
Anglo-America is a region in the Americas in which English is a main language, or one which has significant British historical, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural links...
culture quickly. More recent Finns were on several occasions "racially" discriminated and not seen as white, but "Asian", before the beginning of the 20th century. The reasons for this were the at the time somewhat usual arguments and theories about the Finns originally being of Mongolian
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
instead of "native" (Indo-)European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
origin due to the Finnish language belonging to the Uralic
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
and not the Indo-European language family.
On January 4, 1908, a trial was held in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
about whether John Svan and several other Finnish immigrants would become naturalized United States citizens or not, as the process wasn't for "colored" in general and district prosecutor John Sweet was of the opinion that Finnish immigrants were Mongols, not white. The judge, William A. Cant
William Alexander Cant
William Alexander Cant was a United States federal judge.Born in Westfield, Marquette County, Wisconsin, Cant received an LL.B. from the University of Michigan in 1885. He was in private practice in Duluth, Minnesota from 1886 to 1895...
, later reached the conclusion that the Finnish people may have been Mongolian from the beginning, but that the climate they had been living in for a long time and the to Finland historical immigration and assimilation of Germanic tribes (Teutons
Teutons
The Teutons or Teutones were mentioned as a Germanic tribe by Greek and Roman authors, notably Strabo and Marcus Velleius Paterculus and normally in close connection with the Cimbri, whose ethnicity is contested between Gauls and Germani...
), that he considered the modern "pure Finns" to be indistinguishable from, had made the Finnish population one of the whitest (fairest) people in Europe. If the Finns eventually had Mongolian ancestry, it was too distant and diluted to search for. John Svan and the others were made naturalized US citizens and from that day on, it was forbidden to treat Finnish migrants and Americans of Finnish descent as not white.
Despite being occasionally seen as "racially suspicious", there seem to be no known reports about Finnish Americans having been systematically stereotyped in a negative way. Sources seem to incline that they were rather spoken of in a positive light.
Hispanic AmericansWhite Hispanic and Latino AmericansWhite Hispanic and Latino Americans are citizens and residents of the United States who are racially White and ethnically Hispanic or Latino.White American, itself an official U.S...
Hispanic Americans are those whose ancestry can be traced to SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
or Spanish-speaking Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries. While Latin Americans
Latin Americans
Latin Americans are the citizens of the Latin American countries and dependencies. Latin American countries are multi-ethnic, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Latin Americans don't take their nationality as an ethnicity, but identify themselves with...
have a broad array of ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds, they all tend to be erroneously labeled 'Hispanic' - erroneously giving that term a "racial" value.
Recently, many Americans have opposed the separation of Hispanic from non-Hispanic, especially White Hispanic from non-Hispanic White, seeing it as a form of ethnic discrimination. This can be considered true given that all Hispanics, regardless of race, are included in Affirmative Action programs.
On the 2000 Census form, race and ethnicity are distinct questions. A respondent who checks the "Hispanic or Latino" ethnicity box must also check one or more of the five official race categories. Of the over 35 million Hispanics or Latinos
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
in the 2000 Census, a plurality of 48.6% identified as "White-Hispanic," 48.2% identified as "Hispanic-Hispanic" (most of whom are presumed to be mestizos), and the remaining 3.2% identified as "black-Hispanic."
The media and some Hispanic community leaders in the United States refer to Hispanics as a separate group from all others, as well as "whites" and the "white majority". This may be because "white" is often used as shorthand for "non-Hispanic white". Thus, the non-Hispanic population and some Hispanic community leaders refer to white Hispanics as non-Hispanic whites and white Hispanic actors/actresses in media are mostly given non-Hispanic roles while, in turn, are given the most roles in the U.S. Hispanic mass media that the white Hispanics are overrepresented and admired in the U.S. Hispanic mass media and social perceptions.
Mexican Americans
The official racial status of Mexican Americans has varied throughout American history. From 1850 to 1920, the U.S. Census form did not distinguish between whites and Mexican Americans. In 1930, the U.S. Census form asked for "color or race," and census enumerators were instructed to write W for White and Mex for Mexican. In 1940 and 1950, the instructions were to "Report white (W) for Mexicans unless they are definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race."Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, especially San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
; ran the state politics and constituted most of the elite of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
since colonial times; and went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Additionally, Asians were barred from marrying Mexican Americans because Mexicans were legally white.
U.S. nativists in the late 1920s and 1930s tried to put a halt to Mexican immigration by having Mexicans (and Mexican Americans) declared non-white, by virtue of their Indian heritage. They based their strategy on a 1924 law that barred entry to immigrants who were ineligible for citizenship, and at that point, only blacks and whites, and not Asians or Native Americans, could naturalize. The test case came in December 1935, when a Buffalo, N.Y., judge rejected Jalisco native Timoteo Andrade's application for citizenship on the grounds that he was a "Mexican Indian." Had it not been for the intervention of the Mexican and American governments, who forced a second hearing, this precedent could very well have made many Mexicans, the majority of whom are mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
, ineligible for citizenship.
During the Great Depression
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
, Mexicans were largely considered non-white. As many as 400,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans were deported in a decade-long effort by the government called the Mexican Repatriation
Mexican Repatriation
The Mexican Repatriation refers to a mass migration that took place between 1929 and 1939, when as many as 500,000 people of Mexican descent were forced or pressured to leave the US. The event, carried out by American authorities, took place without due process. Some 35,000 were deported, amongst...
.
In the early 1970s, Chicano activists switched from the "other white race" to "the other minority" strategy as a way to fight discrimination. Just as whiteness once offered the best prospect of protected civil rights, the emergence of race-based policies such as affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act created incentives for them to highlight the nonwhite side of their mixed heritage.
In the 2000 U.S census, around half of all persons of Mexican or Mexican American origin in the U.S. checked white to register their race (in addition to stating their Mexican national origin). Mexican Americans are the largest White Hispanic group in the United States.
Hispanic CaribbeanSpanish CaribbeanThe Spanish Caribbean refers to the Spanish-speaking areas in the Caribbean Sea, namely Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The phrase, thus, excludes countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, and the Lesser Antilles...
Caribbean countries such as Cuba, Puerto Rico and especially the Dominican Republic have a complex ethnic heritage since they include indigenous and African legacies. Africans were imported to the islands in throughout the colonial periodColonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...
(and indeed Blacks accompanied the first Spanish explorers, with more arriving to harvest sugar in the 20th century prior to the Revolution).
Cuban Americans exemplify this complex ethnic status. The Cuban exile
Cuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
s that entered the United States before 1959 tended to be of European ancestry (most particularly Spanish ancestry
Spanish immigration to Cuba
Spanish immigration to Cuba began in 1492 to 1898 as a part of Spain to the present day. The first sighting of a Spanish boat approaching the island was on 27 or 28 October 1492, probably at Bariay on the eastern point of the island...
) and therefore widely considered to be white. Their appearance allowed them to be accepted more readily by an American culture that openly discriminated against darker-skinned Cubans
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
, and other races. In some cases, this white racial status "allowed them to feel superior over other racial and ethnic groups and to make claims to rights and privileges..."
Spanish AmericanSpanish AmericanA Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States whose ancestors originate from the southwestern European nation of Spain. Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565.-Immigration waves:...
s
All Spaniards were legally (though not always socially) considered "White" because of treaty obligations to Spaniards and Mexicans that conferred citizenship status at a time when whiteness was a prerequisite for U.S. citizenship. A Mexican American ex-politician of San Francisco said that Spaniards are not Hispanics because they are Europeans and white. Their appearance allowed them to be accepted more readily by an American culture and to be assimilated to non-Hispanic white society.Native Americans
In OklahomaOklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, state laws identified Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
as white people during Jim Crow-era segregation.
In the late 19th and 20th century, Native Americans were seen as people without a future to be assimilated into a larger American culture. Tribal membership was frequently defined according to so-called blood quantum standards, so that "mixed race" children were eventually excluded. This led to the classification of increasing numbers of people with Native ancestry as white, a trend that has been reversed in the census figures of recent decades which show increasing self-identification as Native American. However, according to the 2000 census, you must know the tribe and maintain contact with that tribal community. "American Indian and Alaska Native. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment."
North African and Middle Eastern Americans
Under the U.S. Census definition and U.S. federal agency, whites with ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa are considered white. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations also explicitly define white as "original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East."Jewish and Israeli Americans
According to one source—although not supported by census records of the period which recorded all JewsJewish ethnic divisions
Jewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinct communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered one single self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic divisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an...
as white—European Jews in America did not become accepted as "white" until the 1940s. As early as 1911, German/American-Jewish anthropologist Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
(1858–1952) purported in The Mind of Primitive Man
The Mind of Primitive Man
The Mind of Primitive Man is a 1911 book by anthropologist Franz Boas which takes a critical look at the concept of primitive culture. The work challenges widely held racist and eugenic claims about race and intelligence, particularly white supremacy....
, that "no real biological chasm separated recent immigrants from Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
descendants." Therefore claims of difference were based on prejudice, whether religious or ethno-cultural, and had no biological basis.
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
was prevalent in the world, including the United States, in the early part of the 20th century, but after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, public attitudes toward Jewish Americans changed to more positive depictions, and American Jews enjoy a relative acceptance. Nonetheless, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists continue to deny them recognition as whites.
A person who responds Israeli to the Ancestry question in the United States Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
but refuses to respond to the Race question will be categorized as white, even though not all Israelis are of European (Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
or Sephardi
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
) or Middle Eastern (Mizrahi
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
, or Israeli Arabs
Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
, Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
) descent. They may be Jews of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
n (Beta Israel
Beta Israel
Beta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...
), Yemenite
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...
(considered by some a Mizrahi subgroup) or Indian
Indian Jews
The history of the Jews in India reaches back to ancient times.Indian Jews are a religious minority of India. Judaism was one of the first foreign religions to arrive in India in recorded history. The better-established ancient communities have assimilated a large number of local traditions through...
descent.
Asian AmericanAsian AmericanAsian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
s
Starting the mid-19th century, the United States experienced significant immigration from the countries of Asia, followed by reactions, such as the Workingman's PartyWorkingman's Party
The Workingman's Party was a California labor organization led by Denis Kearney in the 1870s. The party took particular aim against Chinese immigrant labor and the Central Pacific Railroad which employed them. Its famous slogan was "The Chinese must go!" They held large Sunday afternoon rallies...
, against Chinese and later other Asian immigrants as competitors with white labor, and fears (Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
) that Asians could outnumber the white population in some areas and become dominant.
The Naturalization Act of 1790
Naturalization Act of 1790
The original United States Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790 provided the first rules to be followed by the United States in the granting of national citizenship. This law limited naturalization to immigrants who were "free white persons" of "good moral character". It thus left out indentured...
restricted naturalized American citizenship to whites. (However, United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark, , was a United States Supreme Court decision that set an important legal precedent about the role of jus soli as a factor in determining a person's claim to United States citizenship...
in 1898 confirmed citizenship by birth in the US regardless of race.) As a result, in the early 20th century many new arrivals with origins in the Asian continent petitioned the courts to be legally classified as white, and hence there exist many United States Supreme Court rulings on their "Whiteness". Armenians (usually considered European) were classified by the courts as white with help from the testimony of anthropologist Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
. In 1922, the court case Takao Ozawa v. United States
Takao Ozawa v. United States
Takao Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178 , was a case in which the United States Supreme Court found Takao Ozawa, a Japanese man, ineligible for naturalization. In 1922, Takao Ozawa filed for United States citizenship under the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906 which allowed white persons and...
deemed Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
to be not legally white, even though they had light skin, since it considered them to be part of the Mongoloid race
Mongoloid race
Mongoloid is a term sometimes used by forensic anthropologists and physical anthropologists to refer to populations that share certain phenotypic traits such as epicanthic fold and shovel-shaped incisors and other physical traits common in East Asia, the Americas and the Arctic...
. Less than a year later, the court contradicted itself by concluding that Asian Indians are not legally white, even though a proportion of anthropologists classified some Indians as at least partially Caucasians, instead declaring that whiteness should be based on "the common understanding of the white man."
Associate Justice George Sutherland
George Sutherland
Alexander George Sutherland was an English-born U.S. jurist and political figure. One of four appointments to the Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding, he served as an Associate Justice of the U.S...
found that, while Thind, an Asian Indian, may have had "purity of Aryan blood" due to having "high caste" status and being "born in Punjab" he was not Caucasian in the "common understanding", so he could not be included in the "statutory category as white persons
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
". Associate Justice George Sutherland
George Sutherland
Alexander George Sutherland was an English-born U.S. jurist and political figure. One of four appointments to the Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding, he served as an Associate Justice of the U.S...
wrote in his summary:
In Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
era Mississippi, however, Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
children were allowed to attend white-only schools and universities, rather than attend black-only schools, and some of their parents became members of the infamous Mississippi "White Citizens' Council" who enforced policies of racial segregation.
African AmericanAfrican AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s
- Main Who is African American and Admixture in the US
Owing to the one-drop theory in the United States, Americans with any known African ancestry, no matter how slight, have often been categorized as black. Those of Hispanic, Middle Eastern or North African heritage have been an exception, in that those who look European, or occasionally even those appearing mixed, are not labeled "black" though they may have some sub-Saharan African ancestry, perhaps even acknowledging it.
Laws dating from the 17th century colonial America that defined children excluded children of at least one black parent from the status of being white. Early legal standards did so by defining the race of a child based on a mother's race while banning interracial marriage, while later laws defined all people of some African ancestry as black, under the principle of hypodescent
Hypodescent
In societies that regard some races of people as dominant or superior and others as subordinate or inferior, hypodescent is the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union or mating between members of different socioeconomic groups or ethnic groups to the subordinate group...
. These laws ensured that the children of slaves were available as labor to their parent's master and furthered racist standards of white women's "purity" under threat from black sexual "contamination." Some 19th century categorization schemes defined people with one black parent (the other white) as mulatto, with one black grandparent as quadroon
Quadroon
Quadroon, and the associated words octoroon and quintroon are terms that, historically, were applied to define the ancestry of people of mixed-race, generally of African and Caucasian ancestry, but also, within Australia, to those of Aboriginal and Caucasian ancestry...
and with one black great grandparent as octoroon. The latter categories remained within an overall black or African-American category. Some members of these categories passed temporarily or permanently as white. Until the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, racial identity depended on the combination of appearance, African blood fraction, and social circle.
However, since several thousand blacks have been crossing the color line each year, the phenomenon known as "passing for white", millions of White Americans have recent African ancestors. A statistical analysis done in 1958 estimated that 21 percent of the white population had African ancestors. The study concluded that the majority of Americans of African descent were actually White and not Black.
Religion
People who recorded the religions ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, Jewish, Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
, Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
, Shi'ite, or Sunni in the "Some other race" section are automatically categorized as whites in the 2000 US Census
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
.
See also
- White AmericanWhite AmericanWhite Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
- Racial demographics of the United StatesRacial demographics of the United StatesThe United States is a diverse country, racially and ethnically. Six races are recognized: White, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races; a race called "Some other race" is also used in the...
- Race and ethnicity in the United States Census