The literacy test was a respectable cover for racial discrimination

Evidence

For him and for most subsequent advocates it was chiefly a means of discriminating against “alien races” rather than of elevating American workingmen. The literacy restrictionists realized that consular inspection would not discriminate between nationalities and that a large head tax would establish a blatantly undemocratic property qualification. The literacy test, on the other hand, provided a highly “respectable” cultural determinant which would also minister to Anglo-Saxon sensibilities. “No one,” said Senator Chandler in 1892, “has suggested a race distinction. We are confronted with the fact, however, that the poorest immigrants do come from certain races.” — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 602

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in rational/moral correction backfiring: here the ‘rational’ literacy standard is itself an instrument of manufactured racial hierarchy. — connects to: Standardized testing emerged as pseudo-objective justification for racial discrimination — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 815; Standardized tests were designed by segregationists to legitimize racial exclusion — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 1065; An elite handful drove the national literacy-test campaign — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 605 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Standardized testing emerged as pseudo-objective justification for racial discrimination #corroborates (0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 815
• Standardized tests were designed by segregationists to legitimize racial exclusion #complicates (0.75) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1065
• An elite handful drove the national literacy-test campaign #expands (0.75) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 605