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The cover of “Who Is ‘White’?: The Tragic History of Racial Distinctions in the US,” by Chin Ku-sup

In the US, there have been White people who were treated like Black ones. Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italians were called “dago.” Jewish people were similarly referred to as “black Orientals” or “white niggers.” The children of Italian immigrants who settled in the southern US were assigned to Black schools. In those days, only Anglo-Saxon people were considered “White.”

“Who Is ‘White’?” explored cases of racial discrimination and distinctions, revealing in the process that “race” itself is a “manufactured product.” The history of “race” does not date back very long. In ancient times, people were not discriminated against for having dark skin. Rather, the concept of race was invented by Western people starting in the Age of Navigation in the 16th century as a justification for exploiting indigenous peoples in the New World. The standards applied were not rationally based, either. In South Africa, the government would poke a pencil in a person’s hair; if it entered, that person was White, and if it didn’t, they were seen as “colored.” Asian migrants in the US were subject to similarly coarse distinctions. Koreans who traveled there for the independence movement were classified as “Japanese,” and even accused of responsibility for starting World War II.

Concepts of race have changed over time. Once discriminated against on racial grounds, migrants from Southeast and Eastern Europe were accepted into the “White” category from the 1930s onward -- a situation that came about after they worked together with other White people on public works projects during the Great Depression.

“Racial categories are not ‘fences’ determined at the time of birth, permanent and fixed. They are products that have transformed with societal and political conditions. [. . .] Race was created as a product of a controlling group’s pursuit of prerogatives and power, and as an ideology of oppressing the weak.” So claims author Chin Ku-sup, a professor of sociology at McPherson College who has studied race for over three decades in the US. His book whets curiosity about what changes lie in store for “races” within us such as academic ties, regionalism, and gender.

By Lee Jeong-gyu, staff reporter

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