Race, Citizenship, and Assimilation

• The US Supreme Court ruled on who was "white enough" to be a US citizen less than 100 years ago.
• Understanding the history of "Whiteness" provides a broader understanding of racism.
• "Whiteness" is purposefully enshrined in laws, policies, and practices throughout American history.
• White supremacy has been systemically embedded in the nation for the purpose of oppressing non-white peoples.

The Naturalization Act of 1790

• The first statute to codify naturalization law in the US.
• Specified that only "free white persons of good character" could become citizens.
• Excluded Native Americans, enslaved people, and free black people from federal citizenship.
• Established Whiteness as a defining characteristic of an American person.
• Required individuals to be of European ancestry with light skin to be considered "white".
• Citizenship was a critical marker for power, entitling men to vote, serve on juries, hold office, and own land.

The 1830 Indian Removal Act

• Forcibly relocated Native Americans from east of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma.
• Deprived Native people of their ancestral lands, which were distributed to white settlers.
• The US government coerced Native tribes to sign treaties that forcibly displaced them, citing "divine providence" and the Native people's refusal to assimilate.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1856)

• The Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, an enslaved black man, was not entitled to emancipation despite being relocated to free states.
• The Court stated that people "of Negro descent" were not included or intended to be included under the word "citizens" in the Constitution.

The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 & Thirteenth Amendment in 1865

• Abolished slavery in the US.
• Critics feared it would lead to citizenship rights for Black men.

Fourteenth Amendment (1868)

• Guaranteed citizenship rights to anyone born in the United States, excluding Native Americans due to their "allegiances to foreign powers".

The Naturalization Act of 1870

• Extended naturalized citizenship to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent”.
• At this point, only "white" people (light-skinned, European ancestry) and black/"Negro" people (dark-skinned, African ancestry) can become US citizens.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• Banned all immigration from China for ten years.
• Permanently excluded Chinese nationals from obtaining US citizenship until its revocation in 1943.
• Chinese laborers in the Western US were seen as a threat to white colonial identity.
• Alien land laws prohibited non-citizens from owning property, upheld by the Supreme Court in Yamashita v. Hinkle (1922).
• Led to the "Yellow Peril" era, spreading fear about the threat of "yellow" Asian people to "white" people.

John Elk

• Born a member of the Winnebago tribe.
• He was denied US citizenship despite renouncing tribal allegiance and living among white people.
• The Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins (1884) that Elk was not entitled to citizenship because he was not white (or black).
• Effectively disenfranchised Native Americans until the Indian Citizenship Act.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Established the "separate but equal" doctrine in public facilities.
• Plessy, who was 7/8 European descent, was arrested for sitting in a white-only railway car.
• The Supreme Court upheld racial segregation if facilities were of "equal" quality.
• Legalized racial apartheid, and underfunded non-white spaces.

Anita Hemmings

• An individual who applied to Vassar in 1893 and passed as "white.”
• Attended the all-white university until her graduation in 1897.
• Her racial background was questioned, which became a massive scandal when it came out she was of mixed race.

The Nationalization Act of 1906

• Established uniform naturalization laws across the country.
• Prescribed cultural requirements for citizenship, including learning English.
• Required affirmation against polygamy, coinciding with the LDS church's second manifesto against it.

The Immigration Act of 1917

• Limited immigration and citizenship.
• Required literacy tests for immigrants.
• Barred immigration from the "Asiatic Barred Zone," including the Arabian peninsula, Indonesia, India, and parts of China/Mongolia.
• Barred people considered "mentally defective" or with undesirable cultural characteristics.

Takao Ozawa

• A Japanese immigrant who challenged racial restrictions in immigration law.
• Argued that Japanese people should be considered "free white persons" eligible for naturalization.
• The Supreme Court denied his case in Ozawa v. United States (1922), stating citizenship was only available to "those popularly known as the Caucasian race."

Bhagat Singh Thind

• An Indian Sikh man who argued he should be considered white due to his "high caste aryan" heritage.
• The Supreme Court ruled in US v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) that while Hindi-speaking high-caste people were similar to whites.
• Because Hindis had intermarried too much with people native to the Indian subcontinent, and didn't counting as white for citizenship.
• Whiteness became based on subjective perception rather than science or ethnicity.

John Svan

• A Finnish-American who was initially rejected for naturalization due to being considered "mongol" and "yellow".
• Gained citizenship after Finnish communities in Minnesota and Michigan campaigned to prove their whiteness.
• Finns renounced socialism, learned English, and assimilated religiously and economically.

Executive Order 9066

• Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.
• It designated certain areas as "military areas" and authorized the removal of all people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps, regardless of citizenship.

Kiyoshi Hirayabashi

• Refused to relocate to an internment camp.
• The Supreme Court upheld his conviction in Hirayabashi v. US (1943), justifying racial discrimination.and stating that residents with ethnic ties to an invading enemy could be a source of danger during wartime.
• Upheld in Korematsu v. US (1944), siding with the government's right to imprison citizens based on ethnicity.

Alice Jones & Kip Rhinelander

• Alice Jones, a biracial New York woman, married Kip Rhinelander, a member of a prestigious family, in October 1924.
• Kip's family tried to annul the marriage, claiming Alice deceived him into thinking she was white.
• Alice refused the annulment, stating she admitted to being colored and that Kip knew it.
• The jury ruled that Alice could not be white, and ruled that Kip could not annul the marriage.

Modern Understanding of Whiteness

• Whiteness is synonymous with power and privilege.
• Presumptions are made about a person's status, threat level, and trustworthiness based on skin melanin.
• Certain behaviors, values, religion, language, and politics are seen as inherent in whiteness.
• White supremacy is preserved by constantly changing the definition of whiteness at the expense of non-white people.
• Dismantling systemic racism requires identifying the institutionalization in policies and practices since the inception of America.
• Qualifying as white had been the key to accessing power, resources, and opportunity.
• Demanding immigrants "assimilate" and asking minorities to adopt "normal" names or accents reinforces whiteness as the norm.
• Dismantling white supremacy involves recognizing how whiteness operates and creating a racially pluralistic society that values diversity.

Explore the racial environment in which Anita Hemmings applied to Vassar and the significance of her story. Discover the requirements for US citizenship, legal implications of the Nationalization Act of 1906 and effects of underfunding Black schools. Understand the function of 'Whiteness' in American society.