Thesis: Citizenship has been used a means to preserve privilege and designate “whiteness” to
people in American society. The assimilation of early European immigrants into the identity of
whiteness and the struggles faced by Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the US demonstrate
how citizenship can be used as a tool or a weapon. The mark of citizenship signifies the status of
the people in American society as either desirable or alien.
1. First talk about citizenship and what it entails in the U.S and its benefits and who is
considered a citizen in the late 19th to early 20th century
2. Then talk about why citizenship is racialized and the purpose behind it, that is why do
native whites try to protect citizenship
3. Then talk about European immigration and the interesting notion that Europeans were
initially not considered white because of their status and which country they came
from. That is they were perceived as inferior and competition to the jobs available.
4. Then talk about the hardships that Europeans endured due to their lack of acceptance
and citizenship and how they were treated as equals to African Americans.
5. Then talk about how the migration of African Americans in the early 20th century led
to the blurred lines of whiteness and the acceptance of European immigrants as white.
6. Talk about how eventually being accepted as white allowed the European immigrants
to assimilate and blend into “whiteness” and we can see the appreciation of their
original culture even in todays day and age which is a stark contrast to other
immigrant groups which have struggled.
7. Talk about the early Chinese immigration into the United states and Chinese
exclusion act of 1882, i.e why did the government feel the need to ban Chinese
laborers? And how the act marked the Chinese as permanent foreigners (imposs.
Subject. p. 441)
8. Talk about how the Japanese were perceived in America prior to WW2 and how
WW2 shifted the image and forced them into internment camps which nullified their
citizenship