What is your definition of being white? What was the courts definition in the cases here?

In re Ah Yup: white applies to only those of the Caucasian race; color is important In re Najour: white applies to those of Caucasian race; about race, not color Ex parte Shahid: white applies to person of European descent or a European person (geographical) What is the social and legal construction of whiteness? Sometimes, courts relied on a common understanding test, according to which, for example, Japanese, despite light skins, were not White Other times, they adhered to an outmoded and simplistic biological theory, according to which the human race came divided in to four (or more, or a vague number) genetically marked races, laid down by evolution or the Creator PG 495 The law helped define the white race by specifying who could naturalize and who could immigrate Social construction defined by treatment of individuals by others; whether they faced discrimination During slavery, the racial divide between black and white became a line of protection from the threat of commodification: whiteness protected one against being an object of property After slavery ended, whiteness continued to be a valuable asset, carrying with it a set of assumptions, privileges and benefits How and why did ethnic whites suddenly change to just being white? When and how is whiteness learned? Pg 516 Some of the changes set in motion during the war against fascism led to a more inclusive version of whiteness Anti-Semitism and anti-European racism lost respectability The 1940 census no longer distinguished native whites of native parentage from those of immigrant parentage, so that Euro-immigrants and their children were more securely white Theories of nurture and culture replaced theories of nature and biology Instead of dirty and dangerous races who would destroy US democracy, immigrants became ethnic groups whose children had successfully assimilated into the mainstream and risen to the middle class Euro-ethnic suburbs became the measure of US democracys victory over racism At one point, the courts defined Arabs as white? What was the process for Arabs to be racialized to be un-white, if any? What is white privilege? Is there such a thing as black or brown privilege? System of informal exchanges, courtesies, favors and benefits that a group extends to each other but not to outsiders Is it possible to be part of the white race, without risking lapsing into white supremacy? Because whites benefit inherently from white privilege without any active awareness or effort, it is impossible o be white and not lapse into white supremacy. Because our society and our laws have placed white as a privileged class, it is impossible to be white and not a white supremacist. As stated in Barbara Flaggs article, whites have the ability to go through their everyday lives without thinking about their whiteness while it pervades every aspect of a person of colors life. This privilege, called white transparency, allows them to believe that they are being race neutral when they are unknowingly benefitting from their status as a white person in America. In the article about white privilege and white transparency, they white author states that she recognizes that she is a racist because racism stems from a systemic root, rather than an individualistic root. White who do not see themselves from white supremacy are benefitting from white supremacist ideals and the historical

conception of whiteness as the superior race. They benefit from the connection of whiteness with pureness and innocence. What is the role for Whites in the struggle for equality? Is the idea of the white race traitor tenable? A race traitor is someone who is nominally classified as white, but who defies the rules of whiteness so flagrantly as to jeopardize his or her ability to draw up on the privileges of the white skin. Identify with the racially oppressed; oppose tracking in the schools, oppose all mechanisms that favor whites in the job market, and oppose the police/courts, which define black people as a criminal class; disrupt the normal functioning rather than simply resisting things; target the mainstream institutions that reproduce racism; go beyond socially acceptable limits of protest According to Noel Ignatiev (pg 562), it is impossible for a person to be a white race traitor, they will eventually identify with the white race again He believes that only they can dissolve the white race from within, by rejecting the poisioned bait of white-skin privileges