Naturalization Act of 1790 and US Citizenship

• This article explores the history of Whiteness, its cultural and legal definitions, and its effects on US institutions and interactions.

Naturalization Act of 1790

• The act specified that only "free white persons of good character" could become citizens.
• This excluded Native Americans, enslaved people, and free Black people from federal citizenship.
• It established Whiteness as a defining characteristic of an American person.
• To be considered "white," one had to be of European ancestry with light skin.

Citizenship as Power

• Citizenship allows the right to vote, serve on juries, hold office, and own land.
• It provides access to resources and opportunities.
• Non-citizens were established as a second-tier of personhood.

1830 Indian Removal Act

• This act forcibly relocated Native Americans from east of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma.
• Native people were deprived of ancestral lands, which were distributed to white settlers.
• The US government coerced Native tribes to sign treaties through claims of "divine providence" and the idea they were not assimilating into "white" culture.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1856)

• The Supreme Court stated that Dred Scott, being "of Negro descent," was not included under the word "citizens" in the Constitution.
• As such, he could not claim any rights and privileges secured to US citizens.

Emancipation Proclamation and the Fourteenth Amendment

• The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 formally ended slavery in the US.
• The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) granted citizenship rights to any person born in the United States.
• Native Americans were excluded because they have "allegiances to foreign powers," tribes.
• The Naturalization Act of 1870 extended citizenship to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.".
• At this point, only those "white" people and Black people, based on race, could become US citizens.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• The act banned all immigration from China for ten years.
• It permanently excluded Chinese nationals from obtaining US citizenship until it was revoked in December 1943.
• Alien land laws prohibited non-citizens from owning property, upheld by Supreme Court decisions like Yamashita v. Hinkle in 1922.
• The "Yellow Peril" spread fear about the threat of Asian people to white people in the US.

John Elk Case

• John Elk, a member of the Winnebago tribe, renounced his allegiance to the tribe and attempted to register to vote in 1880, he was denied.
• The Supreme Court ruled in 1884 (Elk v. Wilkins) that Elk, despite being US-born and renouncing tribal allegiances, was not entitled to US citizenship because he was not white (or Black).

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• The ruling enshrined the "separate but equal" doctrine in public facilities.
• effectively legalized racial apartheid in the United States.
• The all-white power structures did not invest money into non-white spaces, leading to underfunding of Black schools and other public spaces.

Anita Hemmings

• Anita Hemmings, who passed as "white," attended Vassar, an all-white university and graduated in 1897.
• Her racial background was discovered shortly before graduation.
• She later married a man who was also of mixed-race, and they raised their children as whites in New York so they can enjoy class and educational benefits.
• Whiteness had to do with cultural and performative scripts such as skin color, how a person speaks, and how they carry themselves.

Nationalization Act of 1906

• The act established uniform naturalization laws and cultural requirements, including learning English.
• It required one to affirm that "he is not a polygamist or a believer in the practice of polygamy.".

Immigration Act of 1917

• The act limited immigration and citizenship.
• It required literacy tests of immigrants.
• It barred immigration from the "Asiatic Barred Zone," and people considered "mentally defective".

Takao Ozawa Case (1922)

• Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant, argued that Japanese people should be considered "free white persons."
• The Supreme Court ruled that Japanese people are "Mongoloid" and not white, and thus not eligible for citizenship.

Bhagat Singh Thind Case (1923)

• Thind, an Indian Sikh man, argued that he should be considered white because he was a "high caste aryan, of full Indian blood".
• The Supreme Court ruled that while Hindi-speaking high-caste people were similar to whites, they had intermarried too much with people native to the Indian subcontinent, and did not count as white for citizenship.

John Svan Case

• John Svan, a Finnish-American, was initially rejected for naturalization because Finnish immigrants were considered "mongols" and "yellow".
• A state supreme court judge ruled that Finns had become some of "the whitest people in Europe" because they lived in northern climates for an extended period of time.
• Finnish communities in Minnesota and Michigan undertook large-scale campaigns to prove their whiteness.

Executive Order 9066

• During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.
• Certain areas were designated as "military areas" and authorized the removal of all people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps, regardless of citizenship status.

Alice Jones

• Alice Jones, a biracial woman, married Kip Rhinelander.
• Kip's family had pressure mounted for Kip to annul the marriage, claiming that Alice had deceived him into thinking she was white.
• The jury ruled that Alice could not be white.

Whiteness Today

• Whiteness is synonymous with power and privilege and behaviors today such as religion, language, and politics all play a role.
• Until Whiteness is grappled; dismantling systemic racism in America is not possible.
• Whiteness is why:
  • a white woman with an AR-15 slung over her shoulder gets media interviews and marriage proposals
  • a black man with a cell phone in his hand gets killed by the police
  • African Americans are 6.4 times more likely to be incarcerated as compared to white people
• Decoupling Whiteness and goodness will prevent a racially segregated US.

Assimilation

• Demanding that immigrants "assimilate" is asking them to adopt as much Whiteness as their melanin will allow.
• American society upholds White Supremacy as the governing norms in their policies, practices, and culture.
• Part of dismantling White Supremacy is recognizing how Whiteness operates and making a conscious effort toward creating a racially pluralistic society that values and accepts racial, ethnic, cultural, and behavior diversity.

Explore the Naturalization Act of 1790 and its racist implications. The act restricted citizenship to 'free white persons,' excluding other groups. This decision had long-lasting effects, reinforcing systemic inequalities and shaping the meaning of race and power in the United States.