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Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath PHD Questioning the revival : white ethnicities in the racial pentagon Ubeysekara, Ruwan Award date: 2008 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 Questioning the Revival: White Ethnicities in the Racial Pentagon Ruwan Nisantha Ubeysekara A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath Department of European Studies and Modern Languages July 2008 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior consent of the author. This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation. [ ] i Abstract This thesis embodies a comprehensive analysis of the assimilation of Southern and Eastern European immigrant groups in the United States. Despite being considered racially distinct upon arrival en masse in the period 1880-1920, assimilation theorists posited that these white ethnic groups would be quickly absorbed into the prevailing white population. With the aid of Americanization campaigns targeting immigrants and their offspring, it appeared as though ethnic attachments had progressively declined with each successive generation. However, an explosion of white ethnic sentiment and activity in the 1960s and 1970s suggested otherwise, and led many to believe that white ethnic identities had not been entirely forsaken and were in fact being revived by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the immigrants. This view is fundamentally questioned within this thesis which argues that, due to a multitude of forces and factors, white ethnicities could not have been revived in any meaningful sense. Significant attention is drawn to America’s racialised history and race- based social framework within which white ethnics categorically benefited from being classified as ‘white’. Also examined are factors such as generational distance from the point of immigration, language loss, upward mobility, and intermarriage, which together facilitated the comprehensive assimilation of white ethnic groups into the majority white population in the decades leading up to the alleged “ethnic revival.” The upsurge in white ethnic sentiment in the 1960s and 1970s is therefore argued to have transpired due to the chance convergence of a number of different factors, and given the continued classification of Americans as belonging to one of five racial groups, this thesis concludes that white ethnicities stand little chance of surviving in the long-run within a society in which race continues to hold significant sway. ii Contents Acknowledgements v Chapter 1 – Introduction 1 1.1 Background and Hypothesis 1 1.2 Ethnicity Theory 3 1.3 Thesis Structure 9 PART I – Setting the Stage Chapter 2– A Brief History of Race Relations in Pre-Civil Rights America 16 2.1 Native Americans 16 2.2 African Americans 17 2.3 Mexicans, Asians, and Asian Indians 19 2.4 Race, Science, and Religion 23 2.5 The Elasticity of Whiteness 25 2.6 The Emergence of Ethnicity 28 Chapter 3 – Approaches to White Ethnic Assimilation 33 3.1 Anglo-conformity and Americanization 33 3.2 The Melting Pot 41 3.3 Cultural Pluralism 47 3.3.1 Trans-nationality 52 3.4 The Expansion of Whiteness 55 PART II – The Revolution Chapter 4 – The Revolution: Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural 60 4.1 Civil Rights and Black Power 60 4.2 Red Power 67 4.3 Brown Power 68 iii 4.4 Yellow Power 71 4.5 White (Ethnic) Power 74 4.5.1 White Ethnic Disassociation 78 4.5.2 Resentment and Racism 81 4.5.3 Widespread Disenchantment 90 4.5.4 Other Movements 94 4.5.5 State Sponsorship of Ethnicity 97 4.5.6 International Context 101 4.5.7 Ramifications of the White Ethnic Movement 104 PART III –White Ethnicities: Before and After Chapter 5 – The Whitening of White Ethnics 107 5.1 Generational Distance 107 5.1.1 Hansen’s Law 115 5.2 Language Loss 117 5.3 Upward Mobility 125 5.3.1 Suburbanization 128 5.4 Intermarriage 134 Chapter 6 – White Ethnicities in Post-Civil Rights America 145 6.1 The ‘New’ Ethnicity 145 6.2 Symbolic Ethnicity 149 6.3 Optional Ethnicity 158 6.4 Symbolic and Optional Ethnicity in Context 168 6.5 White Ethnicities vis-à-vis Race 175 6.6 Ethnic or Racial Identity? 182 Chapter 7 – Conclusion 192 Bibliography 209 iv Acknowledgments I would like to begin by thanking Dr. Mark Gilbert (now Professor I believe) for having seen something within me that I did not know I had. Without his keen eye for intellectual potential I would never have pursued any form of postgraduate study. His confidence in my ability is what set me off on this somewhat epic journey and for that I will forever be grateful. I am also greatly indebted to Mr Brian Neve who took over the reigns following Mark Gilbert’s departure to newer and greener (and Italian) pastures. Mr. Neve is one of those people that somehow never fail to allay your fears. Whatever my concern, I would always feel more confident when walking out of his office than when I had walked in. I thank Mr. Neve for his patience and can only hope that he found at least parts of my work mildly stimulating. I would also like to thank Vanessa Callard for rescuing me on numerous occasions when I had gotten myself into difficulty with departmental processes. On a more personal note, I would like to thank my parents, Thusitha and Ari, without whose support my postgraduate years would have undoubtedly been a far greater struggle. Their support not only enabled me to remain a child for far longer than is, in all probability, both normal and natural, but also bought me the time necessary to concoct my elaborate plan aimed at world domination. I thank my parents for enabling me to take up this opportunity and to fulfil the potential that Mark Gilbert saw in me, and I am fully aware that it is not an opportunity open to all. I would also like to thank my sister, Himalee, and brother-in-law, Shanil, whose unremitting hospitality provided me a convenient base in London from which I could often vanish to random far-flung destinations when in need of a break from my work. Without this window to the world I would have most definitely lost even more of my sanity. v Despite my reluctance, I have little choice but to thank my two best mates, Angshu and Kim. Not only do I thank them for over a decade of friendship of the highest order, but also for often wittingly, yet sometimes unwittingly, subsidising our many engagements and activities over the years due to my impoverished student status. Needless to say, I have no intention of ever repaying them and remind them that a donation is not a debt. This thesis is dedicated to my late maternal grandfather, P. Ruben Peiris, one of Sri Lanka’s most prolific academic writers who travelled to England to witness my birth but passed away long before we could become acquainted. I can only hope to have in some way honoured his lifelong commitment to learning. R.N.U. vi For my late grandfather, P. Ruben Peiris whose literary legacy I hope to have honoured vii Chapter 1 - Introduction 1.1 Background and Hypothesis Browse through any textbook on the subject of twentieth-century American history and it will invariably attend to the Civil Rights and ‘Black Power’ movements of the 1960s and 1970s. A few may broaden their scope to include the ‘Red Power’, ‘Brown Power’, and ‘Yellow Power’ movements, as well as the those pertaining to Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, and even Animal Rights which are now specialist subjects in their own right. But fewer still will feature references to a ‘White Ethnic’ movement. Indeed, awareness that an upsurge in white ethnic activity ever occurred amid the social upheavals of the Civil Rights era continues to elude many Americans, particularly those born in the mid-1970s onward. On the surface at least, much evidence and countless testimonials suggest that an “ethnic revival” did in fact take place among a sizeable segment of Americans of southern and eastern European descent whose forebears had entered the United States during the period of high immigration, 1880-1920. Many later-generation white ethnics seemingly rediscovered their roots in the 1960s and 1970s and asserted newfound ethnic identities with immense pride, expressing them by way of ethnic merchandise and an interest in genealogy, via ethnic themes in literature and the culture industries, an enthusiasm for Old World history and affairs, and by rushing to join ethnic organisations and, even, to establish new ones.
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