In the reading, “Ozawa and Thind”, Lopez states “The Court’s eventual embrace of common knowledge confirms the falsity of natural notions of race, exposing race instead as a social product of measurable only in terms of what people believe” (Lopez, 80). Now this statement reiterates so much about the topic of race as a social construct. Race being only what people believed in was dangerous because at the time racists would use what they believed in to indoctrinate the superiority of white race over all other races. For that reason being, there was a specific criteria for citizenship. In Ozawa’s immigration aftermath, he viewed himself as an American by heart, not by name. To prove he was an American, he could not have any ties to his home country of Japan like their language, choice of marital partner, and Japanese organizations including schools, churches, etc. This goes all the way down to his kids as well. After submitting that application, Osawa was denied citizenship because he was of Japanese race/descent. This caused him to go to the highest court and fight to get his citizenship. The problem was he asserted he should not have been denied it because he is white skinned. Eventually the Court said he was not white. This shows me that the criteria for citizenship was to be white because in previous cases, each defendant tried to prove to the Court that they were white. Now they would not do this for any reason. At the time, whites were seen as the race that were accepted as Americans. I think citizenship today can be defined as the ability to conform and become accustomed to the standards of America and their views on being tied to a foreign country. I think every race can be a part of the U.S. if the U.S. was not so blinded by the past and the social constructs on race and the need to be white to be acknowledged as an American. To belong here, it means we are acknowledged and in ways where our every life decision is not compromised and judged based on the color of our skin or what people deem our race to be. In my own opinion, that should be the new definition of citizenship. Any person of any race that can come to America and respect America while embracing their home country without limits and consequences.
I agree with your opinion. I also think more races could have become part of the United States if the United States had not had the social composition of race in the past and the foolish idea of having to be white to be recognized as Americans.