Southern and eastern European immigrants were racialized before entering whiteness after WWII

Evidence

Race scholar David Roediger’s analysis of these groups shows that they were at first racialized but, after World War II, accepted into whiteness. He states that they occupied an “inbetween” space: “‘Inbetween’ hard racism and full inclusion neither securely white nor nonwhite—new immigrants were also chronologically inbetween sharply posed calls for their racially based exclusion … and far greater acceptance.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 227

Categorization

• XREF: Roediger’s ‘inbetween’ racialization thesis connects to Ignatiev’s ‘How the Irish Became White’ and the broader whiteness-studies literature on how racial categories are historically constructed. — connects to: Racial difference had to be manufactured before Europeans seemed alien; Southern congressmen framed southern European immigrants as racially impure — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 984; Postwar IQ testing data grouped immigrant whites into inferior racial ranks — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1664 (+17 more)

Broader Connections

• European immigrants held an intermediate racial status and were induced to become white #expands (0.85) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 40
• Postwar redefinition of Whiteness shifted European differences from racial to ethnic #expands (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 387
• Military service in WWII cemented European immigrants’ American whiteness #corroborates (0.83)
• European immigrants were racially stratified despite sharing legal Whiteness #corroborates (0.82) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 386
• Southern and Eastern Europeans were once branded unassimilable in the USA #corroborates (0.82)
• Ethnicity replaced race for European immigrants by the 1940s #corroborates (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 397
• Postwar suburbia granted previously marginal European ethnic groups full Whiteness #corroborates (0.80) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 919
• Early-1900s American intellectuals classified Southern and Eastern European immigrants as racially inferior #corroborates (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 239
• Social whiteness for immigrant groups was conditional on Protestant assimilation #qualifies (0.75)
• European immigrants earned whiteness by adopting anti-nonwhite antagonism #qualifies (0.75)
• European immigrants proved Whiteness by joining anti-Black subordination #qualifies (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 388
• Race and ethnicity were synonymous before World War II #corroborates (0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 383
• European immigrants became white by projecting lost freedoms onto racialized others. #qualifies (0.72)