Race and Citizenship in the U.S.

The American society has long been a racialized society. So much so that one’s race
determined whether or not they became citizens. In 1790, the U.S. Congress ruled that only
white immigrants could become naturalized American citizens (Praxis 99, 2020). After the
American Civil War, citizenship was extended to African Americans. Thus, to become an
American citizen, one had to prove that they were white or black. For so many immigrants
from Asia and the Middle East, the quest for citizenship meant striving to prove their
“whiteness”.

The case of Tokawa Ozawa illustrates how the requirement of whiteness was used to
deny citizenship to so many deserving people. Ozawa, an immigrant from Japan, applied for
naturalization in 1915 (Praxis 99, 2020). He claimed that he, like other Japanese, was white
for two reasons. First, he had skin color that was just as white as that of people already
considered whites in the U.S. Secondly, he argued that his personal beliefs and
characteristics, such as industry, honesty, and patriotism, made him a white American. The
Supreme Court denied his application for citizenship by claiming that he was not a white
man. According to the Supreme Court, only a Caucasian person could become white. Since
Japanese people like Ozawa were Mongoloids and not Caucasian, they could not be
considered white (Praxis 99, 2020). Since they could not be considered white, they also could
not become American citizens.

Through the Ozawa case, the Supreme Court in effect denied citizenship to Japanese
Americans on account of their physical characteristics. Based on the ruling in the case, it may
be concluded that the Supreme Court sought to have only Caucasian immigrants become
American citizens. However, another case that emerged in the Supreme Court just three

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months after the Ozawa case ruling proved that the Supreme Court’s definition of “white”
was much narrower and even vaguer than the definition that they had provided in the Ozawa
ruling. An Indian man named Baghart Singh sought to obtain American citizenship by
claiming that he was white because Indians are Aryans and, therefore, are Caucasians just
like European whites (Praxis 99, 2020). With the Supreme Court having defined a white
person as someone of the Caucasian race, it may be assumed that Baghart and many people
from the Indian sub-continent were destined to become American citizens because of their
Caucasian race. However, the Supreme Court changed goalposts again. It ruled that just being
Caucasian was not enough for one to be considered white. Whiteness was what a common
white man thought whiteness was. Whiteness was no longer an issue of science but opinions
of other white people.

Therefore, the Supreme Court used its ever-changing definition of whiteness to
determine who became an American citizen and who did not. By making whiteness a
subjective concept, the Supreme Court was able to shape American society in a powerful
manner. At the heart of the Supreme Court’s often contradictory rulings on who was white
and who was not, was an understanding that the American society had to be maintained as a
predominantly white European society. By denying citizenship rights to other groups,
European whites would be able to maintain a demographic, economic, and political
superiority for a long time. Even though the requirement that a person proves their
“whiteness” to become an American citizen through naturalization was abolished in 1952, the
requirement illustrates the great lengths that American institutions went to ensure that
America remained a predominantly white European country.

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References

Praxis 99 (2020, Sept. 16). Race- The Power of an Illusion (Part 3: The House We Live In).
Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv7gMoTDbo0&feature=youtu.be