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Whenever I check a box about my race, I always wonder whether I'm supposed to check the "white" box. Am I—the son of a descendant of Europeans and an Arab immigrant—"white?" It turns out this question has a long history in America, and it's as racist as you suspect…
The first law to set rules for naturalization in the United States was the Naturalization Act of 1790, which allowed naturalization only for "free white person[s]… of good character." https://www.politico.com/story/2012/03/the-united-states-enacts-first-immigration-law-074438
It may be worth noting that the first seven presidents were technically born on British soil, and the eighth spoke English as an acquired language. Martin Van Buren's first language was Dutch.
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which outright prohibited Chinese people from immigrating. It stayed on the books until the Magnuson Act of 1943 weakened it and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 finally eliminated racial barriers to immigration.
Here's where Arabs come in in 1909, Syrian immigrant George Shishim won a federal case and became a citizen. Up to that point, Syrians were considered "Mongolian-Chinese." Shishim's argument was that Jesus was Arab and thus Arabs are white. Yes, seriously. https://www.arabamericanhistory.org/archives/dept-of-justice-affirms-arab-race-in-1909/
In Dow v. the United States (1915), a Syrian immigrant named George Dow argued that the Chinese Exclusion Act shouldn't apply to him. After a long process, the Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit concluded that Dow was "white enough" to be "classed as white." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_v._United_States
If it seems like Dow and Shishim were selling out Chinese Americans to move themselves up the ladder, yeah, I think that's fucked up too. The kyriarchy has always pitted us against each other. I'm ashamed at how many of our ancestors exploited that system rather than fight it.
A number of Arab-Americans have tried to get a separate MENA classification added to the United States Census. Helen Samhan, one of the cofounders of @AAIUSA, has made a dogged effort in this direction since the 1990s. But as of 2020, we didn't get one. https://www.npr.org/2018/01/29/581541111/no-middle-eastern-or-north-african-category-on-2020-census-bureau-says
I personally feel strongly that the current classification of Arabs as "white" is the worst of both worlds. We get racial profiling, hate crimes, and microaggressions, but we can't apply for minority-owned business status, we can't apply as minorities on applications, etc.
I'm still researching, so more to come.
