White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race (10th Anniversary Edition-
Revised & Updated) by Ian Haney Lopez.
introduction
How would you react to an email pop up on your screen from the Department of Homeland Security concerning your acceptance in the green card lottery program? Imagine being told you just became an American citizen. Such is the appraisal or rather cognizance of the white society and white countries that have caused our language and culture to suffuse. The status white is perceived to be of the highest value, and white is connected to good health care, good jobs, and excellent economy. Whiteness is the measurement of the status quo to the point that the less affluent white societies would be embarrassed about being white. Being able to thrive in a white civilization is a dream for everyone; this would lead to a somewhat predictable chain of event-immigration and racism. According to Ian F. Haney, Lopez, in the book White By Law being a citizen by naturalization in the united states was limited only to white persons and judges of the United States supreme court in the 1920s would decide and pass judgment on who is white enough to be an American. This paper will be looking to give a reflection, offer critiques, and highlight any confusion about this book White By Law.
White Lines
The first chapter of the book depicts the importance of being a “white person” in the United States of America. In the early 1920s, being a citizen by naturalization was limited to only “white persons.” This practice was dominant for over a century and a half until late 1952. This aspect of locking out other races from attaining citizenship by the mere virtue of their different skin color, facial appearance, culture, and religious beliefs was the foundation of one of the most prominent cancers in American society; racism. However, the book does not explain who stands out to be white enough to be a citizen by naturalization. The confusion here arises due to this Taxonomy of Whiteness, if you had to be white to enjoy your civil rights, how would we classify Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Armenians, and Arabic people? This confusion is even magnified when we read that the court conversely ruled that Mexicans and Armenians are “white” but disputed the whiteness of Syrians, Indians, and Arabic persons. Whiteness was considered a property that was far more valuable. Still, not everyone was allowed to have it, and this was the onset of something that would forever change the landscape of humanity, racism.
Racial restrictions in the law of citizenship
For nearly a hundred years, federal law restricted immigration into the united states based on race. Congress in 1880 passed the Chinese exclusion law that banned the migration of the Chinese people into this country for over a decade. This ban was later on inclusive to all Asian people, black people, or people of color. In as much as there are debates on who is white and who is not, some confusing reenactments on the law continues. For instance, congress enacting safe environments to encourage the immigration of the Irish while the same laws deny migration from the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, India, and South Korea. The history of racial discrimination in the immigration department laws is a long and continuing one.
The prerequisite case
Racism was highly politicized in the united states of America. Due to the exclusion of Asian and black people from naturalization various movements fighting for their inclusion as would-be citizens were formed, the then-senator Charles Sumner attempted to erase the laws that prevented blacks from being a citizen in the United States. This attempt was met with a lot of hatred since much of Congress hated the Native Americans and Asians. An effort to segregate Japanese children in schools caused stirring agitations that attracted the attention of the Japanese government, prompting President Theodore Roosevelt to propose legislation that would allow Japanese immigrants to naturalize and become citizens.
Ozawn and Thind
In 1914 the bizarre case of Takao Ozawa, a Japanese man who was born in Japan but moved to the united states as a boy, attended school, including his university education in the USA, ended up marrying an American wife and had an American family. Ozawa had his children go through American schools and even attended an American church after converting to Christianity. After living in the united states for almost two decades, Ozawa applied to be considered as an American citizen by naturalization (Lopez, 2) This request that was denied in a two-step process through the court of law that made its ruling based on his appearance and skin color. Despite the fact, Ozawa stated that his skin was whiter than the skin of an Italian or Armenian. In a similar incident, Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian American, was denied citizenship in 1919. After he challenged the court that he is as white as he needs to be to get American citizenship, his plea was also rejected based on his race.in as much as Indians share ancestry with Europeans, Indians do not meet the “common sense” quality of being referred to as white.
The legal construction of race
Compellingly, the prerequisite case shows that race is socially created, with the law being the central part of it all. A society is defined by what it believes in, and regulations have a way of turning a habit into a belief. In the early 1900s, being any other color other than white was a liability, the moment one race comes out to believe its superior to all the others, there is an inferiority complex that bis created in mind and this can enslave if not horned out, racism starts in the head with the help of discriminative laws ( Ian F. Haney. Lopez, 7).
White race-consciousness
Following the rippling effects of the discriminatory laws, scholars increasing the race-consciousness suggesting that we should be “colorblind” and never discriminate based on one’s looks, it is essential to understand the diversity of the world by knowing that each race is vital in the realm of humanity. Race-consciousness is not entirely inclusive to the entire populace in the united states of America, racism still exists, but a white person not seeing color when interacting with an Indian or black person is undoubtedly a step towards liberation.
The value of whites on whiteness
The two-step process that determined the degree of whiteness in the united states dissected the concept of race. The status “white” was a door opener, considered “free persons” that were permitted by law to own property in the early 1900s. Being white was a privilege that was not allowed for any persons of color, whites being the perpetrators and oppressors of people of different races put being white at the same level as obtaining gold.
Colorblind white dominance
After centuries of trying, the united states are leaving race and racism behind. Practices such as interracial marriages and the adoption of children from different races is an indication of a colorblind white dominance (Lopez, 8). The historic election of the first-ever black president of the united states in 2008 was a step-in history that will forever change the concept of racism and political discrimination through passing unfavorable laws.
In conclusion, Ian F. Haney, Lopez highlighted most of the laws that discriminated people of color in the united states of America. With the advancements in legislation and activism on the subject, racism has been an eye-opener to general most of the white population in America. In as much as some concepts are not clear such as discrimination of Japanese immigrants because they are not white is one of the areas that will always depict racism as absurd.
References
Lopez, Ian H. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. NYU P, 1997.
—. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. NYU P, 2006.
López, Ian F. Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice. Harvard UP, 2009.
López, Ian F., and Richard Delgado. The Social Construction of Race. 1999.