Arabs were classified white for citizenship so they could be distinguished from ineligible Asians

Evidence

For Arabs who are racially classified as white, they lose this status when they wear the hijab. It is clear in the stories here that the women interviewed were not accustomed to these racial encounters before they wore the hijab. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 201 (#complicates, via linked claim)

These experiences also clearly demonstrate how the hijab mitigates the privileges that whiteness affords. White women lose their privilege of whiteness when they wear the hijab. The white women’s experiences are no different from the Pakistani and Indian women who also wear the hijab. They too are marked as potentially Arab. The hijab becomes a racializing agent, and those who wear it are told to “go back home” by their fellow private citizens, which denies them the ability to claim their national identity. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 261 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Maryam, a Syrian American, told me she passed for white before she decided to wear the hijab. She grew up in a small Midwestern town where hers was one of only a few Muslim and Arab families. Growing up, she said her family was never overtly religious. They used to celebrate the major Muslim holidays, but other than that, culture played a more prominent role in her family’s everyday life than religion. Maryam did not have Muslim friends in high school, but at college in Chicago, she began to meet other Muslims, and this strengthened her interest in Islam. As a result, she started to wear the hijab, which is when she recognized her status as white beginning to change. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 145 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Arabs gained whiteness-status in 1943 while Muslims generally remained excluded because Islam signified non-whiteness. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 123; Arabs achieved economic success yet still lost whiteness through foreign-policy racialization — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 130; Courts disagreed across jurisdictions about whether Arabs were white (+14 more)

Related

• Arabs classified as white lose that status upon wearing the hijab (similarity 0.93)
• Muslim Arabs move away from whiteness regardless of actual skin tone (similarity 0.93)
• Arabs gained whiteness-status in 1943 while Muslims generally remained excluded because Islam signified non-whiteness. (similarity 0.92)
• Wearing the hijab is read as surrendering whiteness and citizenship standing (similarity 0.91)
• Arabs were legally classified as white in 1943 to distinguish them from ineligible Asians. (similarity 0.91)
• Wearing the hijab strips Arab women of their perceived whiteness (similarity 0.91)
• Converting to Islam or wearing the hijab causes loss of whiteness privileges (similarity 0.89)
• Categorical whiteness excludes Arabs and Muslims from the benefits of racial remedy in America (similarity 0.88)
• Muslim identity ejects Arabs from whiteness and strips them of its material benefits (similarity 0.88)
• Lighter skin and Christian identity secured citizenship privileges that darker or Muslim Arabs lacked (similarity 0.88)
• Arabs achieved economic success yet still lost whiteness through foreign-policy racialization (similarity 0.88)
• Islamic identity exceeded skin color in rendering Arabs non-white for citizenship (similarity 0.88)
• Lighter skin and Westernized names let some Muslims pass as white (similarity 0.88)
• The hijab overrides prior phenotypical racial classifications, unifying South Asian and Arab women (similarity 0.87)
• The hijab overrides whiteness as a racializing agent on any wearer. (similarity 0.87)

Broader Connections

• Arabs classified as white lose that status upon wearing the hijab #complicates (0.60) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 201
• Converting to Islam or wearing the hijab causes loss of whiteness privileges #complicates (0.60) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 261
• Wearing the hijab strips Arab women of their perceived whiteness #complicates (0.60) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 145
• Categorical whiteness excludes Arabs and Muslims from the benefits of racial remedy in America #complicates (0.55)
• Muslim Americans are racialized even when visibly white, so racialization must include cultural traits #complicates (0.50) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 88
• Religious identity racializes Arab and South Asian Muslims along shared lines #complicates (0.45)