Wealth could purchase whiteness yet never erase immigrant origins

Evidence

Whatever else Senator McConnell inherited, he inherited whiteness, which perfectly positioned him to enjoy the life he has today. In contrast, the first black person was elected to a statewide office in Kentucky in 2015. As of 2019, “there is only one black-owned business in downtown Athens: The Sweetest Thing Tea Room.” — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 566 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In 1923, the US Supreme Court affirmed that being Caucasian was insufficient to qualify an applicant as White. In United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the Indian applicant, a Hindu, could prove he was anthropologically Caucasian, but the Court rejected his naturalization application by replacing the scientific inquiry rule with the common knowledge rule. A darkskinned Indian, even if anthropologically Caucasian, simply could not be White. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 548 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Whiteness itself functioned as inheritable wealth for white Americans — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 566; Assimilation theory frames whiteness as the default outcome of immigrant incorporation — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 59; Whiteness confers presumed belonging while nonwhiteness signals perpetual foreignness (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Whiteness itself functioned as inheritable wealth for white Americans #complicates (0.78) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 566
• Provable anthropological whiteness was insufficient for US naturalization once race became common knowledge #complicates (0.74) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 548