Race and its fluid definition

Nancy Foner has found that recent immigrants are often described as “non-whites” or “persons of color” instead of the “unquestionably white” immigrants from the Golden Age of Immigration. Though it is true that today’s immigrants are coming from countries different from those in the past, she also points out that during the Golden Age of Immigration, the Jewish and Italian immigrants were considered “non-whites”, the opposite of today’s viewpoint. Even as late as the 1930s, immigrants from Italy and eastern Europe were described in different terms than other European immigrants and were often called inferior to the others. They were denied jobs and excluded from higher education. However, today, it is very rare to find someone describing Italian and Jewish immigrants as non-white. Because race is a social constructed concept, the definitions of “white” and “non-white” are constantly shifting and how people view the new incoming immigrants change based on these changing definitions. She takes one example, African immigrants and West Indians, defined for her purposes as “people of African descent from the English-speaking Caribbean.” Though the African immigrants and West Indians are separate groups, she finds that in New York City, they are often thrown together into one category simply because both appear “black.” However, in the West Indies, she notes that “black” is defined based on ancestry, skin color, hair type, facial features, and socio-economic status as opposed to simply skin color as it is in the United States. This difference means that someone who is not defined as black in the West Indies may still be considered black once they come into the United States. Because race is such a fluid concept, it is silly to base anything on it. However, many neighborhoods in New York are still divided on race lines, causing some groups to have a higher poverty rate than others. Discrimination still persists, and racially motivated crimes still endure.