"White" is one of the most commonly used racial categories
to describe some Americans. Skin color is equated with racial identity
although numerous other terms that have been used such as
Anglo
Saxon
Aryan
Teutonic
Nordic
Caucasian
European
These terms are not identical, emphasizing other characteristics such
as language, descent, geography, etc The differences are revealing showing
how Americans chose to define their racial identity at different times
in American history. Like Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos,
White Americans have continually redefined their racial identity for
both political and cultural reasons.
For example the term White
Anglo Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) was frequently
used through the 1950s. As an identity, it rejected demands for inclusion
by Jewish Americans and Catholics regardless of skin color. "Anglo
Saxon" as a term implied that Irish (presumably Celts) and Latin
(French, Spanish, Italian, etc) were also not members of the racial
community.
Race was enshrined as science during the Enlightenment by European
scientists committed to categorizing human beings into types. These
scientists had only crude methods of categorizing human beings, no knowledge
of Darwinian Evolution or Heredity, little firsthand knowledge of the
people they were judging, and little academic scholarship available
to them on the histories or cultures of these "races." Racial
terminology varied but some of their terms are still used today.
A German physiologist named Johann Blumenbach is sometimes called the
father of physical anthropology. He proposed one of the earliest classifications
of the races of mankind. Blumenbach created the term CAUCASIAN
to describe members of the white race, basing the choice of his term
upon the race residing in Georgia on the southern slope of the Caucasus
Mountains, who at the time enjoyed a remarkable reputation for beauty.
To Blumenbach, Caucasian was coined for aesthetic not biological reasons
because the Caucasus region of Asia Minor he said produced "the most
beautiful race of men" While Americans like to think of racial labels
as having to do with descent, no one believes that the origins of White
Americans is from the Caucus mountains. [Bendyshe T, ed. The Anthropological
Treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. London: Anthropological Society;
1865:99;269]
Joseph-Arthur, comte de Gobineau (b. July 14, 1816, Ville-d'Avray,
Fr.--d. Oct. 13, 1882, Turin, Italy) was a writer and ethnologist who
created a theory of racial determinism that had lasting impact on European
and American racial beliefs. Between 1853 and 1855, Gobineau published
a 4 volume work entitled Essay on the Inequality of Human Races
in which he argued that the Aryan
race were superior to all others. The term Aryan was
derived from Sanskrit word arya meaning noble and represented
a people who lived in northern India. 19th century linguists traced
all European languagues to an Indo-European origin. Immodestly declaring
Aryans the pinnacle of civilization, the race Gobineau explained was
responsible for everything and anything valuable ever created. Therefore
they had to preserve their special racial character by preventing intermixture
with inferior races.Gobineau's admirers included his student Houston
Stewart Chamberlain and Adolph Hitler, among others.
Aryan served as a rally cry for German unity in Europe, defining Jews,
Gypsies and others as inferior non-Aryans.As Adolph Hitler explained:
"In the final analysis, the Jew is actually an Asiatic, not a European."
On the other hand, because it argued for a Northern Indian origin of
all European culture, it could technically define Europeans as Asian
descendents or vice versa. In the US, this ambiguity allowed a handful
of Punjabi immigrants to be declared Caucasian around WWI.
Between 1880 and WWI, the United States experienced large waves of
European immigration. These "new immigrants" however did not
come from northern Europe and represented a frightening diversity to
many. The difference perceived in these immigrants was frequently described
as a racial difference in which Europeans were represented as, not one,
but many races identified by region (Alpine, Mediterranean, Slavic and
Nordic) or by alleged headshape (roundheads, slopeheads).
Madison Grant, a biologist and curator for the American Museum of
Natural History in New York explained in his book The Passing of
the Great Race that White Americans, the great race, were losing
out to hordes of inferior European immigrants. Grant's book was so popular
it experienced 7 reprints before WWII. According to Grant, "These new
immigrants were no longer exclusively members of the Nordic
race as were the earlier ones...The transportation lines advertised
America as a land flowing with milk and honey and the European governments
took the opportunity to unload upon careless, wealthy and hospitable
America the sweepings of their jails and asylums...Our jails, insane
asylums and almshouses are filled with this human flotsam and the whole
tone of american life, social, moral and political has been lowered
and vulgarized by them."
Another thread of the debate over whiteness is the so-called Anglo
Saxon descent.This identification traces Whiteness
to the invasion of England by Germanic Tribes at the end of the Roman
Empire. By the end of the 17th century, 90% in British North America
were of English Descent.Founding fathers during the Enlightenment and
fans of Sir Walter Raleigh novels such as Ivanhoe imagined a
warrior race of constitutional democrats. Citing Tacitus, the emergence
of American Democracy and British Parliamentary Government are said
to have its origins among these germanic tribes.
Unfortunately, this is a selective reading of Tacitus emphasizing only
what are believed to be the positive traits of the German tribes. Here
is an excerpt from Tacitus:
"Habits in Time of Peace. Whenever they are not fighting, they pass
much of their time in the chase, and still more in idleness, giving
themselves up to sleep and to feasting, the bravest and the most warlike
doing nothing, and surrendering the management of the household, of
the home, and of the land, to the women, the old men, and all the weakest
members of the family. They themselves lie buried in sloth, a strange
combination in their nature that the same men should be so fond of idleness,
so averse to peace. It is the custom of the states to bestow by voluntary
and individual contribution on the chiefs a present of cattle or of
grain, which, while accepted as a compliment, supplies their wants.
They are particularly delighted by gifts from neighbouring tribes, which
are sent not only by individuals but also by the state, such as choice
steeds, heavy armour, trappings, and neck-chains. We have now taught
them to acccept money also."
Tacitus views the Germans less as proto-parliamentarians than as a
simple, crude people with an admirable love of freedom. But they also
despised work, hated peace, gambled, drank and fought too much. He also
did not think they were particularly attractive. (See Tacitus; Roger
Daneils, Coming to America, p. 102; Audrey Smedly, Race in North America,
p. 190)
Of course, Anglo Saxon as a label ignores Celtic, Roman, and Norman/French
influences on English culture, race and language as well.