Same-ethnicity petitioners were declared white in one court but not another

Evidence

Courts accepted a Syrian applicant’s status as a White free person within the meaning of Rev. St. § 2169 because “fair or dark complexion should not be allowed to control, provided the person seeking naturalization comes within the classification of the white or Caucasian race, and [District Judge Newman] consider[s] the Syrians as belonging to what we recognize, and what the world recognizes, as the white race.” In re Najour, 174 F. 735 (N.D. Ga. 1909). But later, they rejected the Whiteness of a Syrian applicant and found that “the meaning of free white persons is to be such as would have naturally been given to it when used in the first naturalization act of 1790[,] … ​such persons as were in 1790 known as white Europeans.” Ex parte Shahid, 205 F. 812, 814 (E.D. S.C. 1913). — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1428 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islamic identity rendered immigrants non-white in citizenship cases regardless of legal test — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 154; Courts disagreed across jurisdictions about whether Arabs were white; Courts disagreed over whether Syrians counted as White for naturalization — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 1428 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Courts disagreed across jurisdictions about whether Arabs were white #exemplifies (1.00)
• Courts disagreed over whether Syrians counted as White for naturalization #exemplifies (1.00) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1428
• Arabs’ citizenship eligibility flip-flopped because courts inconsistently defined whiteness #expands (0.95)
• Conflicting court rulings proved whiteness was legally incoherent and socially constructed #corroborates (0.95) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 535
• Religion shaped whether courts classified Arab immigrants as White for citizenship #expands (0.90) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 521
• Courts constructed whiteness on shifting criteria including religion. #expands (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 183
• INS declared Arabs white by shared civilization, reversing court rulings to the contrary #exemplifies (0.85) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 123
• Early-1900s courts rejected European-descent limits on whiteness but conceded their legal basis #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1435