White People, Attention: You have been and are being fooled! PART TWO

(This is part two of the previous post.)

Where were we, now? Oh yeah.

When we left off last time, we were unraveling the beginnings of Whiteness. Whiteness was created only as a contrast to Blackness, Native-Americanness, and in contrast to anything else different. The creation of the White Race did not end with Naturalization for the first American citizens. Whiteness, unlike any other racial classification in the history of this continent, did something that no other classification was able or has been able to do: expand its boundaries and inclusion of “Whiteness”. It is in exposing this that I intend to show that being White in American institutions is at its root one of the primary tools for the retention of a social power structure and is an arbitrary label to maintain class divisions for the elite.

No, Jews and Italians were not always "white". The Irish either.

The arrival of numerous new groups of Europeans in the mid to late 19th century brought with it a crisis for the White identity. Not only did Whites have to contend with the Slave issue and Blacks now attaining citizenship, but now the arrival of new Europeans who had never lived in mass amounts on the mainland. On top of this, Asians made large migrations to America. The European arrivals were comprised heavily of Irish, Slav, Jewish, Italian, and Polish backgrounds. Many of these immigrants had darker features and brought with them different religions such as Judaism and the branch of Christianity known as Catholicism. None of these groups, upon arrival, were considered “white”. In fact, the Irish were considered as “low” as Blacks. The Jews were considered a different race. Bigotry was rampant in literature, such as “The Passing of the Great Race”, dividing Europeans based off of arbitrary lines and pseudo-science.

But wait, you might think, aren’t the Irish, Polish, Slavs, etc. all considered “white” today? Yes. Is this due to some sort of coincidence or all of a sudden White acceptance of different cultures and ethnicities? Not quite. These immigrant groups aligned themselves with White labor and social movements, such as the Irish (http://academic.udayton.edu/Race/01race/white13.htm). European ethnics, previously “conditional whites”, were now melding themselves in with the White majority. Just as in the past as European lower classes were accepted to keep Black power at a minimum threat from the status quo, European ethnics were accepted so long as they conformed to the “melting pot” lifestyle, leaving their lifestyles of their ethnic homelands to Anglicize and form a skin-privileged White culture. Light skinned Europeans could leave their ethnic ties behind and become White. Blacks, Asians, Mexican-Americans all did not have this luxury.

Not just the ability to have a pretty "White" name.

These were not simply social luxuries. There were plenty of structural luxuries. An example of institutionalized White privilege and minority suppression is in the Social Security act, passed in 1935. The act denied benefits to workers of agricultural jobs and domestic employees. The majority of these workers were a good chunk of the Hispanic and Black population of the country. This created opportunities of wealth inheritance that non-Whites would not be privy to. At the same time, many school districts in the Southwest and Texas segregated Mexican-American and Anglo children into separate facilities. The Mexican schools were grossly underfunded and often offered only a grade school education. It was not until the 1960’s that Mexican-American advocacy groups were able to bring an end to discriminatory practices in education to predominantly Hispanic areas and introduce bilingual education to students.

This is not even mentioning the Jim Crow South, sundown towns, lynching, segregation, and social degradation of Blacks. By racializing Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and other groups, Whites became the “norm”, “non-racial”, and most importantly: “Americans”. By the end of World War II, the G.I. Bill pumped money to majority White families and injected even more opportunities for inherited wealth and social status. Whites, who were by and large leaving European, urban enclaves, were now migrating to newly constructed Suburbs. Being Jewish, Italian, German, these things were now less important to the homogenous White identity now formed. On their own, families had French and Italian backgrounds, perhaps. In contrast to “non-Whites”, however, these ethnic pasts were now second to being White.

Worth it in the end?

Thus, the existence of the White race was formed and is today maintained as a contrast to that which is “non-White”. Being “White” is relatively arbitrary. It is not defined by what it is, so much as what it isn’t (Black, Asian, basically anyone deemed racial). Is the White Race something that should have been formed? Is this arbitrary social group, as well the perpetuated classes of “Blacks”, “Asians”, etc. worth retaining?