The Development of Whiteness

Oh, fearless reader, it is funny indeed how life works out.  You go from one book to the next, one reading to another and they seem to work in dialogue with each other.

To be honest, I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised at the serendipity as I am taking a course and there is much reading involved, but still . . .

The latest gem comes from Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race by Matthew Frye Jacobson.  In it, Jacobson argues that pre-1840 there were essentially 2 races: Black and White.  However, with the rise of European immigration between 1840 and 1920, there is a variegated whiteness.  Irish, Italians and Jews are all marked for disapprobation by the White power structure because they are not culturally the same as the dominant Anglo-Saxon population.  

It's an interesting argument, although I am not finished and the focus on this particular time period leaves out the eventual ways in which the concept of White is enlarged to make room for those ethnic groups.  In terms of argumentation and writing style I prefer Racial Fault Lines: the Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California by Tomas Almaguer.  But this enlarges essentially the same argument to fit the United States.

What I found most interesting about it was the ways in which the Irish essentially maintained their ethnic identity by "Othering" the dominant culture.  Eventually, based on some other reading I've done, the dominant culture and Irish culture reach an accord of sorts, as Irish force the concept of Whiteness to include them (by establishing themselves as not-Black).  So, Jacobson's argument is interesting, but ultimately, I think he overstates the ways in which ethnic groups are pushed out as "other" to the dominant culture.  Clearly, these White ethnic groups are othered, in the beginning, as different.  But the most essential division in America, the one that defines America, is between Black and White.  So, really, it's just a matter of time before American culture changes and adapts and the definition of Whiteness stretches a bit, but in the end, the essential facts remain unchanged.