At the turn of the 20th century, the US has laws in place that discriminated against non-white immigrants (particularly those from Asia).
Some European immigrants who were not considered “white” in their home countries were also discriminated against. To overcome this, they attempted to pass as white.
Ways they tried to pass as white are as follows:
- Hiding their ethnicity
- Claiming to be from a country that was considered white
- Abandon their own cultural traditions
This was more true for Southern and Eastern Europeans who were Italian, Greek, or Jewish.
Passing as white allowed immigrants to:
- Escape discrimination
- Gain access to economic and political opportunities (that would’ve been denied to them otherwise.)
- Obtain a US citizenship
- Avoid racist policies and attitudes