Becoming white thesis

Common card · No. 488322

The becoming white thesis or becoming white narrative is a historical narrative in the United States that certain non-Anglo-Saxon and non-Protestant immigrant groups from Europe and the Middle East including Armenians, Catholics, Greeks, the Irish, Italians, Jews, Arabs, and Slavs were once considered "non-white" (despite them generally having light skin similar to other white people) and later acquired the status of whiteness. The thesis pertains primarily to the social and economic status of these immigrant groups, rather than their status under law, as all European immigrants between the Naturalization Act of 1790 and 1952 were classified as "free white persons" for the purposes of federal naturalization law, and all European immigrant groups have been listed as white on the federal census from the first census in 1790 to the most recent census in 2020. An alternative to the becoming white thesis is the white on arrival thesis, which states that all European immigrants were legally...

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