Racialization and Immigration Laws in the US

[anna_katabi]

Reading the texts for Monday made me realize how much racialization is socially constructed with flexible criteria to adjust to the needs of American society. Immigration and naturalization laws in the U.S. are very stupid. They were based on arbitrary criteria. How can you categorize everyone since everyone is different and has a specific identity?
Gualtieri, in Becoming White, discusses the case of Syrian immigrants to the U.S. during the 20th Century. The courts did not know if they could classify Syrians as whites or non-whites. Some courts decided that skin colour did not matter if someone’s whiteness could be determined by other personal qualifications deemed necessary for naturalization. Another judge decided that geography was essential in determining someone’s whiteness. It was as simple as: if someone was from Europe or a descendant of a European immigrant, they were white. Europeans were favoured because they were assumed to be more predisposed towards the American form of government. They perceived non-Europeans as products of despotic regimes. Christians were also favoured in determining whiteness because they had “good morals.” For example, Christian Syrians were seen as white because of their religious identity. On the contrary, Muslim Arabs were sometimes considered whites if they were stripped of their religious affiliation.
Syrians were interested in claiming whiteness. For naturalization, it was more logical to claim it as whites than as Africans since Syria is not in Africa. They were also interested in the privilege that would come with having a white identity. Some would argue that as Semites, they were more compatible with ‘western’ civilizations. And if they were Semites, they were Caucasians, and therefore white. Their interest in claiming whiteness was also due to racist reasons. They were claiming whiteness and excluding Black people and Asians. Not being recognized as white was an attack on Syrian honour. Furthermore, “there could be no worse dishonor than for Blacks to have rights that Syrians did not fully possess.” They were completely distancing themselves from Black and Asian people to claim whiteness and privilege.
Overall, the idea of “becoming white” for Syrians reveals the fragility of the racialization system in the US. It was completely based on arbitrary choices to preserve whites and their privileges with “scientific” ideas.