Loading ...Why Are Arab Americans Classified as White?
By: Arwa Almasaari / Arab America Contributing Writer
The history of Arab American racialization is complex. It has changed over the decades to facilitate different agendas. The Arab identity is primarily linguistic and includes people of all skin tones. Early Arab immigrants to the U.S. faced a new classification system that determined their legal status. Under the naturalization law, citizenship was restricted to “free white persons” or “persons of African descent.” For “Syrian” immigrants, securing citizenship before the 1940s largely depended on whether they were recognized as white. While Syrians generally gained citizenship without much debate before 1909, the question of their racial eligibility became contentious in the early 1900s as nativism resurged. Northern intellectuals warned of Anglo-Saxon “race suicide” and supported eugenics, while southern whites focused on maintaining racial boundaries, viewing the “inbetweenness” of new immigrants as a threat.
Naturalization Struggles
Efforts to regulate immigration gained institutional support with the 1906 formation of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. Congressman John L. Burnett advocated for a literacy test to limit nonwhite immigrants, particularly targeting Syrians, Jews, Poles, and Russians. In response, H. A. Elkourie, president of the Syrian Young Men’s Society in Alabama, defended Syrian whiteness. He argued that if Syrians weren’t considered white, then neither was Jesus, emphasizing their Holy Land origins.
Court rulings on the racial status of Syrian immigrants were inconsistent. In 1909, Costa Najour was initially denied naturalization due to his skin color but won his appeal after Judge Newman argued that Syrians, as Caucasians, should be considered white. However, other judges took a different view. In 1913, Judge Henry Smith denied Faris Shahid’s naturalization, categorizing Syrians as “Asiatic” and ineligible for citizenship. A key victory came in 1915 with Dow v. United States, where the court ruled that Syrians were “white persons” based on their origins in certain parts of Asia.
The Ambiguity of “Whiteness”
This fluid understanding of race continued into the 20th century. In 1941, Majid Ramsay Sharif, an Arab, was denied an immigration visa on racial grounds. However, the Board of Immigration Appeals later ruled in his favor, influenced by the U.S. government’s argument that “whiteness” included the contributions of the Near East to Western civilization. This marked a shift in the perception of Arab racial status compared to earlier decades.
The Immigration Act of 1917 restricted immigration from the “barred zone,” targeting Asians. The 1924 Asian Exclusion Act prohibited all Asian laborers and even denied entry to Chinese wives of American citizens. These laws, along with the 1922 and 1923 Supreme Court rulings on naturalization, enforced a rigid racial definition of Asians, further reinforcing exclusionary policies. In this context, the legal construction of Syrian whiteness emerged as part of a broader narrative to disassociate Syrians from Asia. This effort contributed to the creation of a new category—the “Middle East,” which is actually considered West Asia.
Legally “White”
The fight for naturalization paved the way for Arab Americans to be legally classified as white. By 1978, the U.S. government defined whiteness as including people from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Although Arab Americans are classified as white by the U.S. Census, they are often portrayed as alien or inferior in media and policy. This has led some Arab Americans to claim whiteness, while others reject a racial identity that doesn’t reflect their lived experiences.
The Limitations of “Whiteness”
Classifying Arabs as “white” overlooks the rich diversity within the Arab world, both geographically and in terms of skin tone. Early Arab immigrants to the U.S. were primarily light-skinned Christians from Syria and Lebanon, which contributed to their classification as white. However, subsequent waves of Arab immigrants came from a broader spectrum of the twenty-two Arab countries, encompassing a wide range of skin tones, religions, and nationalities. Since Arabs predominantly reside in West Asia and North Africa, their complex racial identities cannot be captured by the simplistic label of “white.” A more accurate classification should rely on geography rather than skin tone, acknowledging the varied backgrounds and experiences of the Arab people.
Sources:
Almasaari, Arwa. From Scriptures to Stereotypes: Arab Americans Writing Self. 2024. University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/3447.
Brook, Daniel. “The Other Census Disaster That’s Waiting to Happen.” The Daily Beast, 8 July 2019. www.thedailybeast.com, https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-other-census-disaster-thats-waiting-to-happen.
Gualtieri, Sarah M. A. Between Arab and White Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora. University of California Press, 2009.
Jamal, Amaney A., and Nadine Christine Naber, eds. Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects. Syracuse University Press, 2008.
Naber, Nadine Christine. Arab America: Gender, Cultural Politics, and Activism. New York University Press, 2012.
Smith, Marian L. “Race, Nationality, and Reality-INS Administration of Racial Provisions in US Immigration and Nationality Law since 1898.” PROLOGUE-QUARTERLY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, vol. 34, no. 2, 2002, pp. 90–105.
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