The descendants of immigrants, like black slaves and famine
Irish, gain acceptance when they can vote and rise into the
middle class. A Slow March From the Margins Updated November 16,
2012, 10:12 AM Whiteness — in the sense of racial classification
— used to open the way into American life for large groups of
poor immigrants. Until Reconstruction after the Civil War, there
could be no naturalization without whiteness, and without
naturalization, there could hardly be voting. In and of itself,
voting expresses citizenship, one of two crucial qualities for
inclusion, the other being economic mobility into the
respectable working class. Before the civil rights revolution of
the mid-20th century, lack of whiteness kept the first great
wave of (involuntary) immigrants — the Africans — and their
descendants on the margins of American life. Without votes, they
could not influence policy or work jobs in the public sector.
Without steady wages, African-Americans remained poor. Still
today, black race often serves as