White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race

From Publishers Weekly
In this study, narrowly academic yet intriguing, Lopez, who teaches law at the University of Wisconsin, examines early-20th-century cases in which courts sought to determine who qualified as white for the purposes of citizenship and naturalization. His conclusion: whiteness is "a complex, falsely homogenizing term." For example, he shows how courts issued contradictory decisions regarding the whiteness of groups such as Syrians, Armenians and Asian Indians; some followed scientific evidence, while most ultimately relied on "common knowledge," thus finding many reasons?including culture and political sophistication?to reject foreigners who might be Caucasian. This leads the author to argue, a bit thinly, that whites must pursue a "self-deconstructive" race consciousness to pursue racial justice. Thus, whites must recognize the racial aspects of their privileged identity and daily engage in "choosing against Whiteness"; one example would be to resist racist slurs, even to the point of claiming a nonwhite racial identity when hearing them. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Words carry social connotations. Some, like "lily white," have positive connotations. With this sense of "whiteness" as his thesis, Lopez (law, Univ. of Wisconsin) writes of the law's recognition of a white racial identity. He focuses on a series of cases, from 1878 to 1944, known as the "racial prerequisite cases." In those cases, state and federal courts sought to define characteristics of "whiteness" necessary to qualify an immigrant for naturalization as a U.S. citizen. Lopez concludes that the basis of today's racial inequality is to be found in the privileged status accorded to white Americans because of this legally sanctioned white racial identity. Sure to be controversial, this book will find a deserved place in academic libraries. The general reader might be advised to turn to Andrew Hacker's Two Nations (LJ 3/15/92), John Hope Franklin's The Color Line (LJ 3/1/93), and Cornel West's Race Matters (LJ 3/15/93).?Jerry E. Stephens, U.S. Court of Appeals Lib., Oklahoma CityCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Book News, Inc.
L<';o>pez (U. of Wisconsin; U. of California-Berkeley) explores the social and legal origins of white racial identity, examining cases in America's past instrumental in forming contemporary conceptions of race, law, and whiteness. He traces the reasoning employed by the courts in their efforts to justify whiteness and nonwhiteness, revealing the criteria used up until 1952 to determine whiteness and thus suitability for citizenship, and looks at race relations today. Includes a list of cases and excerpts from selected cases. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


Midwest Book Review
The social and legal origins and ramifications of white racial identity are explored in a title which should be required reading for any course connecting legal study with ethnic considerations. This uses precedent-setting legal cases to construct how modern concepts of race and law were formed, examining connections between race, language, and movements of animosity. College-level audiences will find the discussions thought-provoking.


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Exploring the social and specifically legal origins of white racial identity, Haney Lopez here examines cases in America's past that have been instrumental in forming contemporary conceptions of race, law, and whiteness.


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