English whiteness formed simultaneously with othering of internal and external populations

Evidence

From this anecdotal observation, a secondary pattern emerged: the “whiter” the neighborhood, the more acutely negative stigma and bullying Iranian American youth seemed to face. … This was not a regional y limited experience or a purely faith-based experience of Islamophobia. In this way, the limits of whiteness began to show themselves to me through these travels: Legal, socioeconomic, and geographic proximity to white Americans did not seem to make Iranian Americans white. Their everyday experiences actually suggested the opposite. Young people described acute racialization, especially in majority-white spaces. — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 579 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The second quote, taken from an essay by the psychologist Robert Carter, enrages me since it illustrates the tendency mentioned above to give substance to the notion of “race” as a static and unchangeable fact of identity that marks groups of people for life regardless of their behavior and beliefs; in my view this undermines the whole project of demonstrating that whiteness is an exclusive social category produced through history. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 766 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White English identity was forged through othering its own poor and Scots — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 137; White English identity formed simultaneously with othering of domestic and colonial populations; English othering of Arabs began as othering of its own white poor and Scots — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 149 (+17 more)

Broader Connections

• Assimilation into whiteness fails where physical difference is perceived #complicates (0.80) — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 579
• Race as static identity undermines the case that whiteness is socially produced #complicates (0.76) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 766