HOW JEWS BECAME WHITE FOLKS

HOW JEWS BECAME WHITE FOLKS
In this chapter, Paula S. Rothenberg writes how the Jews became to be considered white. He starts out by quoting Kenneth Roberts who states that “the American nation was founded and developed by the Nordic race” (38). At that time, anti-Semitism was a part of daily life when America did not regard immigrant European workers as white. The author states that he grew up at a time when “were simply one kind of white folks and where ethnicity meant little more to [his] generation than food and family heritage” (38). This is evident that at this time, Jews were members of an inferior race. His main body of this chapter focuses on the processes that led Jews to be where they are now.
Most Jews believe they attained their status today by their “hard work and a high value placed on education” (41). But Paula points out that this could not be true due to what he calls ‘scientific racism’ which had the notion that “real Americans were white and that real whites came from northwest Europe” (41). This initiated racism which spread into education, housing and employment. For example, “Jews were excluded from mainstream corporate management and corporately employed professions, except in the garment and movie industries” (42). Jews strived to get themselves to middle class levels. And the two main questions the author asks are whether the Jews and other Euro-ethnics became white because they became middle class or did being incorporated into an expanded version of whiteness open up the economic doors to middle class status? (43). He concludes that both tendencies are at play here.
The government had set certain changes during the war that led to a more inclusive version of whiteness. In other words, they were changes on who was made white. For example, “the census of 1940 no longer distinguished native whites of native parentage from those of immigrant parentage” (43). Therefore, this allowed for Jews and other Euro- ethnics to assimilate into mainstream and ascend the ladder to middle class. Hence with time, they would have equal opportunities to prosper into the middle class majority as did those considered native whites.
Furthermore, “economic prosperity also played a very powerful role in the whitening process” (43). The postwar period saw America emerging with the strongest economy in the world. This led to an enormous need for professional, technical, and managerial labor. Therefore, more Jews and Euro ethnics were included in the labor force that was initially considered only for real whites. This was made possible through the GI Bill of Rights. Paula however, calls this act an affirmative action because it was aimed at and disproportionately helped male Euro- origins GIs” (44). These GI benefits led to an exposure of racism especially in education and occupation and proved why Paula calls them an affirmative action for white males. He states that he calls them so “because they were decidedly not extended to African Americans or to women of any race” (45). This is one example of white male privilege.
Suburbanization is another process that played a role in the whitening process. This was a policy that showed a lot of discrimination and segregation in terms of housing. Whites were only allocated to white neighborhoods. No one of another race could be allocated a house or allowed to buy a house in the white neighborhood if they weren’t even if they had the money to buy it. “The result of these policies was that African Americans were totally shut out of the suburban boom” (48). One article stated how there could be half a dozen vacant houses yet, none available for Negroes. Redlining is another process that ensured that people of other races would not “buy or repair their homes in the neighborhoods in which they were allowed to live. Urban renewal was the other side of the process by which Jews and other working class Euro- immigrants became middle class” (48}. Therefore, these processes show that “it took federal programs to create the conditions whereby the abilities of Jews and other European immigrants could be recognized and rewarded rather than denigrated and denied” (49), hence eliminating the belief that Jews made it up to where they are now by their hard work.
As I read this chapter, I was amazed at how not every white was considered white. All along, my thinking has been that whites have all been white as long as their skin is white regardless of where they come from.