The Color of Whiteness

By Christopher Petrella & Josh Begley

 

Who is white? Who is not? How has that changed throughout U.S. history? Legally speaking, how have some people gone from white to non-white and back again?

 

 

Drawing on U.S. naturalization racial prerequisite cases, state-level "anti-miscegenation" and "racial integrity" statutes, and 19th and 20th century civil codes and institutional practices, this evolving project dramatizes the shifting and arbitrary parameters of whiteness: white one minute, not-white the next.*

Whiteness is and always has been a moving target, a set of slippery and porous boundaries subject to expansion and contraction based on the political needs and moral panics of any given moment. Located at the intersection of law and representation, The Color of Whiteness demonstrates that the racial ideology of whiteness is not fundamentally reducible to color. Whiteness, rather, is a category of racialized power that can—and must—be historicized, resisted, and undone.

1893 — 1896 — 1908 — 1909 — 1910 — 1913 — 1915 — 1917 — 1919 — 1923 — 1924 — 1925 — 1926 — 1997

1893

WHITE

Anita Hemmings

In 1893, Vassar College admits Anita Hemmings as a white woman. (As a Black woman, Hemmings surely would have been denied admission to Vassar in 1893. The college did not knowingly admit a Black woman until 1944). (Read more)

 

1896

NOT WHITE

Homer Plessy

In 1896, a person with 7/8 "white blood" and 1/8 "black blood" is determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1908

NOT WHITE

John Svan

In 1908, a Minnesota District Attorney rejects a citizenship application for John Svan and 15 other Finns on the grounds that "Finns are Mongolian" and therefore determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1908

WHITE

John Svan

In 1908, (two weeks after Svan's original petition), Finns determined to be white by a Minnesota court. (Read more)

 

1909

NOT WHITE

Bhagat Singh Thind

In 1909, Asian Indians are determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1909

NOT WHITE

George Shishim

In 1909, George Shishim's Syrian identity is determined tantamount to being not white. (Read more)

 

1909

WHITE

George Shishim

In 1909, (three weeks after the Naturalization Examiners's original petition), Shishim's Syrian identity is determined not incompatible with being white. (Read more)

 

1909

WHITE

Costa Najour

In 1909, during the case of Costa Najour, Syrians are determined to be white. (Read more)

 

1910

WHITE

Bhagat Singh Thind

In 1910, Asian Indians are determined to be white. (Read more)

 

1913

NOT WHITE

Costa Najour

In 1913, Syrians are determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1915

WHITE

Costa Najour

In 1915, Syrians are determined to be white. (Read more)

 

1917

NOT WHITE

Bhagat Singh Thind

In 1917, Asian Indians are determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1919

WHITE

Bhagat Singh Thind

In 1919, Asian Indians are determined to be white. (Read more)

 

1923

NOT WHITE

Bhagat Singh Thind

In 1923, Asian Indians are determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1924

WHITE

Pantheyer Brandon

In 1924, Virginians with 1/8 "Native American blood" and "no black blood" are determined to be white. (Read more)

 

1924

WHITE

Alice Jones

In 1924, Alice Jones is thought to be "perhaps white" but possibly with 1/4-1/8 "Black blood". (Read more)

 

1925

NOT WHITE

Alice Jones

In 1925, Alice Jones is determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1926

NOT WHITE

Pantheyer Brandon

In 1926, Virginians with 1/8 "Native American blood" and "no black blood" are determined to be not white. (Read more)

 

1997

NOT WHITE

Anita Hemmings

In 1997, Vassar College celebrates Anita Hemmings as their first Black graduate. Anita Hemmings, therefore, is retroactively considered not white. (Read more)

 

• • •

 

FURTHER READING:

James Baldwin, "One Being 'White'...and Other Lies"

Khaled Beydoun, "Between Muslim and White: The Legal Construction of Arab American Identity"

Barbara Jeanne Fields, "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America"

Barbara J. Fields & Karen E. Fields, "How Race is Conjured"

Sarah Gualtieri, Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora

bell hooks, "Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination"

Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White

Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race

George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics

Ian Haney López, White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race

Cherríe Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa, This Bridge Called my Back: Radical Writings by Women of Color

Mae Ngai, "The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924"

Race: The Power of An Illusion (film and lessons)

David Roediger, Working Toward Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White

Patricia Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights