Pre-twentieth-century American ethnic policy ran on either assimilationist faith or exclusion, never forced integration

Evidence

This is not to say that foreigners no longer seemed a national menace after the early months of 1920. The sense of danger was still vivid; the 100 per center’s thirst for conformity remained unslaked. But his conception of the foreign peril changed so profoundly that Americanization became wholly irrelevant to 1t. From fear of a radical danger, nationalists reverted in 1920 and thereafter to a racial bias. Radicalism, and the hyphenism that preceded it, had been ideological infections; presumably one might set up ideological defenses against them. But the racial danger was in the blood. Why try to educate men inherently incapable of receiving American ideals? Why try to change people who are biologically unchangeable? Why, the influential Saturday Evening Post now asked, try to make Americans out of those who will always be Americanski? * Why, indeed, put much faith in ideals at all? — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1580 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

US policies and actions related to Indigenous peoples, though often termed “racist” or “discriminatory,” are rarely depicted as what they are: classic cases of imperialism and a particular form of colonialism—settler colonialism. As anthropologist Patrick Wolfe writes, “The question of genocide is never far from discussions of settler colonialism. Land is life—or, at least, land is necessary for life.” — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 4 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The fusion of Protestantism-Catholicism-Judaism (what is now referred to as Judeo-Christian) into an American faith tradition sealed their membership in American identity. Mormons, who were of Anglo-Saxon and Nordic ancestry, were elevated to full Whiteness after they renounced polygamy and made public reassurances of their loyalty to the state. By the last quarter of the twentieth century, race disappeared from the nomenclature describing people of various European origins as they socially transitioned from an inbetween race to “ethnic Whites” to fully White. Thus, the White Racial Frame persists, but coercive assimilationism allows some ethnic groups to become White while Blacks can never receive the full benefits of first-class citizenship. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 381 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Assimilation theory cannot explain the permanent exclusion of Blacks from mainstream America — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 377; Colonial liberal assimilation differed fundamentally from later racialized exclusion — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 63; Assimilation lets some ethnic groups become White but never Blacks — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 381 (+3 more)

Related

• Pre-1900 America relied on voluntary assimilation, not forced homogeneity (similarity 0.84)
• US Indian policy constitutes settler colonialism rather than mere discrimination (similarity 0.82)
• Assimilation lets some ethnic groups become White but never Blacks (similarity 0.82)
• Assimilation theory cannot explain the permanent exclusion of Blacks from mainstream America (similarity 0.80)
• Full assimilation in antebellum America demanded converting away from Islam (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Assimilation lets some ethnic groups become White but never Blacks #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 381
• US Indian policy constitutes settler colonialism rather than mere discrimination #exemplifies (0.80) — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 4
• Nativism abandoned ideological conversion for permanent racial exclusion once radical threat dissolved #corroborates (0.80) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1580
• Colonial liberal assimilation differed fundamentally from later racialized exclusion #corroborates (0.78) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 63
• Assimilation theory cannot explain the permanent exclusion of Blacks from mainstream America #qualifies (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 377