Sociology
The Social Construction of Whiteness and Its Historical Privileges
Quick fact
In 1790, the U.S. Naturalization Act limited citizenship to 'free white persons,' and for over a century, courts across the country heard cases asking whether someone was 'white enough' to naturalize—sometimes ruling that a person was legally white in one state but not in another.
Why this is interesting
Most of us think of race as something we can see, but the category 'white' was invented—and it came with a built-in set of advantages. What if I told you that being 'white' was once a legal requirement to even own land?