A Boundary of White Inclusion: The Role of Religion in Ethnoracial Assignment

Abstract

How do White Americans operationalize Whiteness? This article argues that religion, in conjunction with country of origin, alters how self-identified White Americans assign ethnoracial labels to other groups. To test the role of religion in White assignment, this article uses the case of Muslims and of Americans from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Although MENA individuals are legally classified as White in the United States, they are subjected to racialization and often conflated with Muslims. Using an historical analysis of racial prerequisite court cases and a survey experiment, I find that country of origin and religion play separate, additive roles in racial assignment decisions, both historically and today. These findings also extend to perceived skin tone. This is important because many of the benefits that come from being White depend on whether others perceive an individual as White. Understanding the constitutive parts of Whiteness compels research to be specific when discussing White people and why some “White” people are excluded.

Religion or Race? Using Intersectionality to Examine the Role of Muslim Identity and Evaluations on Belonging in the United States

“…The results also have important policy implications. First, the results present further evidence for reconsidering a MENA categorization on the census, as MENA individuals are indeed viewed differently than White (the current legal classification in the United States), which is consistent with other research (d’Urso 2022). While these definitions are important for how migrants are viewed, they are also important in determining how to present questions on the U.S. Census, and if the traditional question choices are the most appropriate (Jones 2017).…”

“…Although MENA individuals are legally classified as White in the United States, White Americans do not firmly place MENA individuals into the category of Whiteness. D’Urso (2022) shows that White Americans use both country of origin and religious cues when operationalizing who is White. While these two traits additively constitute assignment as White, those who were MENA-Muslims were perceived to have darker skin pigmentation relative to those who are either Muslim and White, MENA and Christian, or both Christian and White.…”

“…This exemplifies how certain racial groups may not be evaluated as belonging in the United States, even if they embody qualities such as English proficiency or high education merely due to their racial background. While country of origin is usually a marker of insider or outsider status as well as one’s race/ethnicity, recent research suggests that religion plays a role in how society perceives and assigns racial categories to others (d’Urso 2022). 1 This means religion may also play a role in how people decide who belongs in the United States.…”

How Wide is the Arc of Racial Solidarity? People of Color and Middle Easterners and North Africans

“…We designed this experiment to test two hypotheses: (H1) exposure to information about another non-White group that is similarly marginalized as foreign will heighten MENAs’ sense of solidarity with other people of color ; and (H2) an increase in solidarity with PoC will motivate MENA adults to express more generous political attitudes toward communities of color that are not their own. These hypotheses presume that MENA individuals see themselves as a distinct minority group that is racialized along religious and linguistic lines, which aligns with growing work on MENA individuals (e.g., Naber 2000; Chaney et al 2021; d’Urso 2021).…”

“…This sharp decline is inconsistent with the notion that most MENAs self-classify and identify racially as White , but it affirms the view that MENAs generally see themselves as a unique minoritized group, which is a key consideration for many people of color (Pérez 2021a, 2021b). Furthermore, new work by d’Urso (2021) indicates that non-Hispanic Whites do not cognitively associate MENAs with the category, White (see also Chaney et al 2021), which underlines the marginalization of MENAs as foreign and outside of the highest-status racial group in America’s racial order (Zou and Cheryan 2017).…”