America’s real prize for immigrants was winning whiteness, not wealth.

Evidence

The opportunity and the possibility of becoming white, and thereby being admitted to the privileged class, existed uniquely here; as immigrants landed on this country’s shores, the real prize in the land of opportunity was not economic success but the possibility, for some, of becoming white. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 66

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ‘great white switch’ and the assimilation of Irish/Italian/Catholic groups into whiteness described earlier in this chapter. — connects to: The great white switch made white religiosity a reliable Republican vote predictor. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 45; Whiteness itself functioned as inheritable wealth for white Americans — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 566; American capitalism offered European immigrants whiteness as a path to belonging. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 220 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• American capitalism offered European immigrants whiteness as a path to belonging. #corroborates (0.90) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 220
• Whiteness itself functioned as inheritable wealth for white Americans #expands (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 566
• European immigrants held an intermediate racial status and were induced to become white #corroborates (0.85) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 40
• European immigrants became white by projecting lost freedoms onto racialized others. #expands (0.80)
• Whiteness is a shifting construction that immigrants seek by excluding others #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1066
• European immigrants earned whiteness by adopting anti-nonwhite antagonism #qualifies (0.75)