Working Toward Whiteness:  How America’s Immigrants Became White:  The Strange Journey From Ellis Island To The Suburbs, by David R. Roediger

This book is somewhat misleading in several ways, but all the same there is something worthwhile to discover and so it is still worthwhile to interact with a book like this even where it is wrong a lot.  The reasons why this book is mistaken are still worthwhile.  For one, the immigrants who “became white” in the author’s term were already white to begin with, it is just that when they acculturated they no longer had the sort of problematic tendencies that made them an underclass and were able to be accepted as part of the mainstream culture after three generations or so.  The fact that the author uses a Marxist scheme of interpreting class and an intersectionalist perspective in viewing justice means that there is a lot of rubbish in this book (and these qualities, it should be noted, make for rubbish in any similar book, it should be noted).  That said, the author does at least provide enough of a discussion that it is possible to come to a better understanding when it comes to questions of race and culture than the author does.

This particular book is about 250 pages long and it is divided into three parts and seven large chapters.  The author begins with an introduction to the 2018 edition and then provides two chapters on how one sees race in new immigrant history (I) by looking at the language of new immigrants, race and ethnicity in the early 20th century (1) and the popular language, social practice, and messiness of race (2).  After that there are two chapters that look at the issue of new immigrants being “in between” (II), with chapters of the burden of proof and intermediate identities (3) as well as the racial consciousness of new immigrants (4), along with a healthy dollop of Marxist language.  After that the author provides three chapters that look at the way that new immigrants were able to “enter the white house” as the author refers to it (III), with chapters on the coercion of immigration restrictions (5), the way that people found homes in an age of social and racial restrictions (6), and the new deal, unions, and what new immigrants received by eventually becoming white (7) in the eyes of others.  After that the book closes with an afterword that shows the author’s own white guilt as well as acknowledgements, notes, and an index.

What worth does this book have?  For one, the author does a good job at pointing out that throughout American history a variety of ethnic groups have been viewed as simultaneously “white” but also not sufficiently American to benefit from the full privileges of being part of our dominant culture.  Indeed, one can see fairly easily a tripartite sort of picture.  Those cultures who are able to acculturate without any visible or linguistic or cultural differences are accepted by the third generation or so.  Those cultures which have praiseworthy qualities but who are not able to acculturate have respected places within society but also a certain sense of vulnerability to moods of xenophobia against those who are viewed as outsiders at all (see, after all, the fate of the Japanese and Jews in World War II in America).  And those cultures which are viewed (often with good reason) as inferior tend to have a difficult time seeking the respect and honor that they would wish.  One can see the patterns the author reveals and better understand the struggle that cultures (and historians) have in defining cultures and what one approves or does not approve of them in precise enough terms.  Language is hard, after all.