Iranian Americans arrived with legal whiteness and Aryan nationalist ideologies

Evidence

Given their relatively late migration from Iran, Iranian Americans were not, as a class, privy to the historically punishing racial prerequisites for US immigration and citizenship or legally barred from homeownership or employment on the basis of their race. In addition, Iranians continue to arrive to the United States in possession of, if not an agreement with or adherence to, distinct nationalist ideologies about their own Aryan roots as well. As Iranian Americans arrived white and remained legal y white, the outcome of their racial identification should be uncomplicated. — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 548

Categorization

• QUESTION: How do the ‘Aryan roots’ nationalist ideologies among Iranian immigrants interact with being classified white in US law? Worth chasing how this ideology is mobilized today.
• XREF: Links to Afshin Marashi’s work on Pahlavi-era Iranian nationalism and Aryanist discourse. — connects to: South Asian claimants used Iranian ‘Aryan’ origin to argue their whiteness — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 151; The first generation inherited Aryan whiteness from Iranian state socialization — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 379; Proximity to whiteness increases rather than reduces Iranian American racialization — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 1388 (+3 more)

Related

• Some Iranians arrive believing in an inherited racial whiteness (similarity 0.88)
• Iranian Americans have been flexibly positioned inside and outside whiteness (similarity 0.85)
• Iranians are legally white yet visibly raced in daily life (similarity 0.85)
• Iranians were legally whitened and immediately targeted with racial hostility (similarity 0.85)
• South Asian claimants used Iranian ‘Aryan’ origin to argue their whiteness (similarity 0.84)
• The first generation inherited Aryan whiteness from Iranian state socialization (similarity 0.84)
• Iranian Americans equate being American with being white (similarity 0.84)
• Iranians functioned as a racial hinge anchoring others’ claims to whiteness (similarity 0.84)
• Iranians have been positioned across the American color line for over a century. (similarity 0.84)
• Iranians are legally white yet socially non-white in America (similarity 0.83)
• Iranian identity is not fixed as white but shifts across everyday sites. (similarity 0.83)
• Census whiteness contradicts the everyday social exclusion of Iranian Americans (similarity 0.83)
• Iranian experience reveals what official whiteness can and cannot protect. (similarity 0.83)
• Social whiteness on the ground remains elusive for Iranian Americans (similarity 0.83)
• Social experience, not family ideology, determines second-generation Iranian racial identification (similarity 0.83)