Liminally White: Jews, Mormons, and Whiteness

Moshin, Jamie; Crosby, Richard Benjamin

doi:10.1093/ccc/tcy009

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The racialization of religion can offer insight. As Aziz (2022, 5) notes, “Whiteness is shaped as much by religious identity as it is by skin color, hair texture, facial features, and other phenotypical characteristics.” This has been the case for Jewish, Muslim, and even Mormon Americans (Aziz 2022; Goldstein 2006; Moshin and Crosby 2018; Reeve 2015); this is in stark contrast to much of the narrative surrounding religious freedoms and religion as a choice in the United States. If religion is a choice, then does it signal race?…”

Section: Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

d’Urso¹

2022

Perspect. polit.

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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.

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Section: Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

d’Urso¹

2022

Perspect. polit.

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“…This struggle for social acknowledgment and affirmation was compounded by the fact that the LDS church practiced both of the 'pillars of barbarism' outlined by the then-Republican party: polygamy and the enslavement of Indigenous peoples (Reséndez 2016). These practices and the increasingly insular nature of LDS Church communities after multiple Westward migrations led to increased marginalization and rejection of Mormonism within mainstream US society, with Mormonism, like Jews, having been categorized as a "liminally White" ethnoreligious group (Moshin and Crosby 2018). As a counteraction to this racial "othering" and societal disenfranchisement, including multiple rejections of petitions for US statehood, the LDS Church undertook decades of institutional rebranding to realign itself with White racial assimilative practices and ideologies (Alexander 1996;Bushman 2008;Crosby 2011;Colvin 2015;Mason 2018).…”

Section: "All Are Alike Unto God:" Race Ethnicity and Whiteness In Ld...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Not a Country or a Stereotype: Latina LDS Experiences of Ethnic Homogenization and Racial Tokenism in the American West

Romanello

2021

Religions

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), also called Mormonism, has experienced rapid changes in its US demographics due to an influx of Latinx membership. The most recent growth in the US church body has been within Spanish-speaking congregations, and many of these congregant members are first or 1.5-generation immigrant Latinas. Using ethnographic data from 27 interviews with immigrant members living in Utah, Nevada, and California, LDS Latinas reported that while US Anglo members did seem to appreciate certain aspects of their cultural customs or practices, they also reported frequently experiencing ethnic homogenization or racial tokenization within US Church spaces and with White family members. Our findings indicate that the contemporary LDS church, despite some progressive policy implementations within its doctrinal parameters, still struggles in its ever-globalizing state to prioritize exposing White US members to the cultural heterogeneity of non-White, global LDS identities and perspectives. Latina LDS experiences and their religious adjacency to Whiteness provide a useful lens by which researchers can better understand the ways in which ethnic identity, gender, legal status, and language create both opportunities and challenges for immigrant incorporation and inclusion within US religious spaces and add to the existing body of scholarship on migration and religion.

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“Me enamoré, pero él es blanco”: Inmigrantes latinas mormonas hablan sobre el matrimonio interracial y las relaciones familiares en función de género

Romanello

2023

Lat Stud

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Liminally White: Jews, Mormons, and Whiteness

Cited by 6 publications

References 30 publications

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

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

Not a Country or a Stereotype: Latina LDS Experiences of Ethnic Homogenization and Racial Tokenism in the American West

“Me enamoré, pero él es blanco”: Inmigrantes latinas mormonas hablan sobre el matrimonio interracial y las relaciones familiares en función de género

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