Not Quite White

White privilege is the greater life opportunities one receives on the sole grounds of being white. White privilege doesn’t guarantee that all white people live privileged lives. There are still grounds for discrimination based on gender, sexuality, poverty, and religion. However, even when facing those struggles, white privilege is still present, as their condition is far more favourable than that of a person of colour in the same situation. But just like everything else in the world, privilege has evolved, too. Many of the people who were once classified as “non-white” are now central to what we think of as white today.

When America was first forming, it was typically the English and Northern European settlers who held the majority of the high positions in society. They were the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). They believed that they were superior to other races; to justify slavery and colonisation with their own power, many writers, politicians, and scientists gradually created a racial hierarchy that clearly stated that they were God’s chosen creatures. This hierarchy became popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, later justified as “scientific racism” as many personalities came forth to prove that races could be ranked from superior to inferior. They measured skulls, skin colour, facial features, and religion to prove their superiority. Arthur De Gobineau argued that the white race, especially Aryans or Germanic people, was superior to all others. According to Gobineau and other such theorists, Europeans who were seen as “less white” or not white at all, such as Irish, Italians, Jews, Slavs, and Eastern Europeans, were seen as inferior. Though they were still placed above non-European groups in the racial hierarchy.

Most Irish immigrants arrived in America between 1840 and 1860 as a result of the Great Potato Famine. They came to America with a dream of escaping poverty, starvation, disease, and British rule. Though the Irish were pale-skinned, they were not considered fully white, as they were poor, Catholic, and culturally different. English-speaking Protestants from Northern Europe were considered far superior, subjugating the Irish population to stereotypes such as lazy, drunken, uneducated, and considered only suitable for hard labour. This caused them to be excluded from professions and localities. Signs reading "No Irish Need Apply" were applied in business and advertisements. The newspapers often portrayed the Irish as a threat to society and American values. Thomas Nast, a cartoonist, portrayed Irish people with ape-like features and violent characteristics. Though Nast later came around to voice out against the discrimination of the Irish, political cartoons and comics were a major way for Americans to spread prejudice against groups back then. During the 1870s, the Molly Maguire trials took place. It involved a group of Irish coal miners in Pennsylvania who were believed to be in a secret society called the Molly Maguires. The miners worked in terrible conditions and often protested against low wages, dangerous mines, and unfair treatment by mining companies. A private detective named James McParland went undercover and claimed to find evidence against them for violence and murder. Based solely on his testimony, around 20 Irish miners were convicted and hanged. This case later became an example of how Irish immigrants were treated as dangerous outsiders rather than fully accepted Americans, because it was proven that the evidence was weak and that the jury was strongly biased against Irish Catholics.

Most Italian immigrants arrived in America between 1880 and 1920. They were mostly from southern Italy and Sicily and were darker-skinned than the Northern Italians. They came to America in hopes of escaping poverty, unemployment, famine, and political instability back home. America often saw Northern Europeans as civilised, but didn’t see Southern Italians the same way. Northern Italians themselves looked down on Southern Italians. These Italian immigrants were considered criminals, uneducated, dirty, and believed to be connected to the mafia. They were often denied jobs and housing with signs reading “No Italians Need Apply”. They were excluded from some neighbourhoods and schools, they were refused by labour unions, and newspapers often portrayed Italians as a threat to society. Because most Italians were Catholic, they faced anti-Catholic prejudice as they were believed to be more loyal to the Pope than to America. Cesare Lombroso, an Italian himself, was a criminologist who theorised that Southern Italians were naturally more criminal. This worsened the prejudice against Southern Italians. In 1891, eleven Italian immigrants were lynched in New Orleans after being accused of murder. In 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were accused of murdering a paymaster and a guard during a robbery. They were largely convicted because they were Italian immigrants and anarchists during a period of anti-immigration fear. The judge and jury were highly biased against them, though there was no solid evidence. Even though another man confessed to the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti were denied a new trial and were executed in 1927.

Most Jewish immigrants arrived in America between 1880 and 1924. They came from countries across Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and other parts of Eastern Europe. They came to America to escape poverty, discrimination, and violent persecution happening in their home countries. While the Irish and Italians were seen as “not fully white,” Jews were often treated as a separate race altogether because of their religion and language. They were denied jobs and housing. Many neighbourhoods, schools, universities, hotels, and clubs excluded them. In the early 20th century, universities such as Harvard and Yale had a strict quota on the number of Jewish students they could accept. Henry Ford spread anti-Semitic ideas in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, to millions of readers nationwide. He claimed that Jews secretly controlled money and politics. Political cartoons portrayed them with exaggerated noses, beards, or money bags. The media reinforced the prejudice against Jewish people and deprived them of a respectable social life. In 1913, Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager in Atlanta, was accused of murdering a 13-year-old girl. Though he insisted that he was innocent, the newspapers and public were quick to paint him as guilty. Much of the hostility against him came from anti-Semitic beliefs that Jews were dishonest, immoral, and could not be trusted. Because the evidence against him was weak and inconsistent, in 1915, the governor of Georgia reduced Frank's death sentence to life in prison after doubts arose about his guilt. But soon afterwards, a mob kidnapped Frank from prison and lynched him.

White privilege and whiteness have never been fixed ideas. The history of Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants in America shows that the many people who are now considered unquestionably white were once considered outsiders. Subjugated to baseless stereotypes, these communities lived under discrimination and prejudice. It took learning English, moving out of neighbourhoods, and intermarrying with other white groups to be considered middle-class. It took fighting and dying in wars to be considered as equals. This process did not happen overnight, but took generations before they were accepted as equals. They even resorted to hate crimes against other non-white groups to be accepted. Whiteness was a hierarchy to climb up to, not a category to get into.