Legally White Jews, Catholics, and Mormons faced discrimination as an in-between race

Evidence

Less than one hundred years ago, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and Catholic immigrants from Southern Europe and Ireland faced the indignities of second-class citizenship—in large part due to their religious identities. They were barred from applying to high-status jobs, living in affluent White neighborhoods, and attending elite schools. Mainstream American society stereotyped Jews as greedy, dishonest, duplicitous, and loyal only to so-called World Jewry. Meanwhile, Catholics were stereotyped as superstitious, slavish, and blindly loyal to the pope in Rome over the United States, their nation of citizenship. Political conflicts in immigrants’ countries of origin attracted suspicions that these new immigrant communities were disloyal. Even Mormons, who were US born and of Anglo-Saxon origin, were excluded from American national identity because Protestants deemed their prophet, Joseph Smith, a heretic. Mormons’ practice of polygamy and intermarriage with Native Americans made them a cultural and security threat to the state. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1069 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White Catholic priests led local campaigns enforcing residential segregation. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 201; Catholics and Jews were historically racialized as non-White through their religious beliefs.; Religious identity socially raced legally White groups historically and currently (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• European religious minorities faced legal discrimination despite legal whiteness #corroborates (0.95) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1069