Syrian immigrants naturalized at rates matching southern Italians by 1930.

Evidence

As Syrians’ ties to the United States strengthened, they sought citizenship because it bestowed multiple benefits, including the ability to travel easily between the United States and Syria and the right to purchase property, own businesses, and vote. However, the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization to free White persons, of good character, and living in the United States for two years. After the Bureau of Immigration legally categorized Syrians and Palestinians as Caucasian in its 1899 racial classifications, they had little difficulty naturalizing. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 533 (#complicates, via linked claim)

“Suggesting that ‘white supremacy’ would otherwise be in jeopardy, and identifying the reasons for the lynching of these five Sicilians as comparable with the motives behind the lynchings of African Americans,” Jackson explains, meant “that Italians could be, when necessary, consigned outside a larger category of whiteness.” In other words, white supremacy was willing to sacrifice a few nonblack people in order to maintain the racially inferior status of black Americans. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 141 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Syrian immigrants won citizenship by proving their whiteness through Christian faith; A bureaucratic 1899 racial label unlocked citizenship for Syrians under the White-only naturalization law — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 533; White supremacy could expel Italians from whiteness when useful. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 141

Broader Connections

• A bureaucratic 1899 racial label unlocked citizenship for Syrians under the White-only naturalization law #complicates (0.78) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 533
• Syrian immigrants won citizenship by proving their whiteness through Christian faith #complicates (0.75)
• White supremacy could expel Italians from whiteness when useful. #complicates (0.74) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 141