Jewish immigrants of marginal status rose into the white racial elite through mining wealth

Evidence

Barney Barnato was the poster child of these possibilities. An East London Jewish kid born to immigrant parents, he was a happy hustler, city clown and pavement juggler, sometime pugilist and street smart, a classic and charming mix of East End Yiddish and Cockney. But also at the racial margins of London life. Scraping together a boat ticket to the Cape, Barnato’s arrival could not have been better timed. Quickly taking advantage of mineral discovery, his street savvy soon cashed in handsomely on a small capital investment. Before long Barnato was in partnership with Rhodes, both becoming founding shareholders and lifetime directors of De Beers. The well-heeled British politician and Oxford graduate in bed with the scrappy working-class immigrant son from London’s equivalent of the Lower East Side, class dismissal and disdain notwithstanding. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1475

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the De Beers/sight-holder reputation material in ‘Opting out of the Legal System’ — Barnato as the archetype of how diamond wealth created a new white class.
• SHARE: Worth sending to a reader into South African Jewish history or the De Beers origin story — Barnato’s rise from pavement juggler to De Beers co-founder.