The Constitution protected religious minorities but left racial minorities unprotected

Evidence

While the First Amendment established a relationship between religious minorities and the state that was beyond the reach of governmental authorities, the Constitution did not guarantee any citizenship rights to nonwhite races. It left decisions related to race to state and local governments. Consequently, racial minorities developed varying relations with the governing institutions of this country, depending on where and when they lived. They also could not define their place in America by fighting for their constitutional rights since it offered them no specific shield to guard against discrimination such as the protection that the First Amendment gave to religion; unlike religious freedom, racial equality was not part of America’s national narrative prior to the passage of civil rights legislation. Without constitutional protection, they were much more dependent on the government than society at large to establish their place in America. In contrast to the assimilation of white religious minorities, which occurred for the most part through acculturation, civil rights legislation effected the integration of racial minorities. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 289

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to America’s asymmetric constitutional treatment of religion vs. race — directly relevant to the Muslim question, where Islamophobia sits at the intersection of both categories. — connects to: Constitutional revenue-sharing promises for minorities were never honored — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 298
• SEED: Angle: the constitutional asymmetry — why religion got a First Amendment shield and race got none — explains why Muslim Americans can claim religious but not racial protections, a structural gap feeding Islamophobia.