In 1790, the Naturalization Act
created citizenship for “free white
persons” born outside the U.S. Questions arose over the meaning of this seemingly clear term. So, let’s
play our Crazy Quiz of Immigration Race Law:
True or false:
1.
The Director of Naturalization told
clerks and customs officers to use the “average man in the street” test to
determine whether a petitioner was white, rejecting scientific evidence from
ethnologists.
2.
A Hindu man had been naturalized as a
white person based of ethnological evidence that Caucasians were genetically linked
to central Asians (hence, “Asian” in Caucasian), but after a
Supreme Court ruling rejected this interpretation of race the man’s
citizenship was revoked.
3.
Arabs were considered neither Black
nor Asian and thus defaulted to Caucasian. Later, immigration authorities
decided that Arabs were not white and could not become citizens.
4.
A woman born of Scandinavian descent
married a man of Japanese descent and as a result became Japanese by marriage,
thereby losing her citizenship—even though she was born in the U.S.
5.
Italians were grouped by immigration
officials as “Italian (north)” and “Italian (south).”
6.
Jews were listed as a separate race,
designated as Hebrews.
7.
An attorney who represented a variety
of Middle Easterners complained to immigration authorities that Jesus of Nazareth
would have been denied citizenship on grounds that he was not a white person by
law. He lost the argument.
8.
World War II propaganda warfare
against Japan and Germany was a clear factor in leading lawmakers to introduce
bills to remove racial criteria for citizenship. America felt some degree of
shame for its long history of tying citizenship to whiteness.
Answers are below…..
All of these statements are
true. For elaboration, read Marian L. Smith, Race, Nationality, and Reality,
Parts 1, 2 & 3 here:
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/immigration-law-1.html
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/immigration-law-3.html
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