Iran functioned as a racial hinge in US citizenship law

Evidence

The Zoroastrian and Muslim faiths practiced by Iranians became a legal fact harnessed to “whiten” and Europeanize Christian Arabs and Armenians; the same Zoroastrians and the shared presence of Indo-European languages and “Aryan” heritage in Iran and India were evidence that could whiten and Europeanize South Asians in turn. The specter of Iran was a racial hinge between white Europe and non-white Asia: a face, a body, a culture, and a race that could open or close the door to whiteness as needed. — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 547

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘racial hinge’ concept: how Iran’s liminal geographic and civilizational position was used instrumentally by other groups to claim whiteness.
• SHARE: For anyone interested in whiteness studies or the legal construction of race: Iran’s specter was used symmetrically to whiten both Christian Middle Easterners and South Asian Aryans.
• XREF: connects to: Iranians functioned as a racial hinge in early naturalization cases. — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 69; Iran functioned as a racial hinge deciding Asian whiteness in US courts — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 70

Related

• Iran functioned as a racial hinge deciding Asian whiteness in US courts (similarity 0.93)
• Iranians functioned as a racial hinge in early naturalization cases. (similarity 0.92)
• Iranians functioned as a racial hinge anchoring others’ claims to whiteness (similarity 0.91)
• Iranian Americans have been flexibly positioned inside and outside whiteness (similarity 0.87)
• Iran has functioned as a racial fencepost determining whiteness’s boundaries (similarity 0.87)
• Early US courts defined Middle Eastern whiteness by reference to Iranians. (similarity 0.86)
• Early twentieth-century courts positioned Iran as a borderland for whiteness (similarity 0.84)
• Early twentieth-century courts used Persians as a hinge to define Middle Easterners’ race (similarity 0.83)
• Earlier immigrants argued their own whiteness by distancing from Iranians (similarity 0.83)
• Iranian experience reveals what official whiteness can and cannot protect. (similarity 0.83)
• Iranians have been positioned across the American color line for over a century. (similarity 0.81)
• Iranian Americans arrived with legal whiteness and Aryan nationalist ideologies (similarity 0.81)
• Iranians were legally whitened and immediately targeted with racial hostility (similarity 0.80)
• South Asian claimants used Iranian ‘Aryan’ origin to argue their whiteness (similarity 0.80)
• Some Iranians arrive believing in an inherited racial whiteness (similarity 0.80)