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Traci Jo Elliott
Race & Social Justice
Professor Marie Lo
October 21, 2015
Key Concept Summary; Whiteness and United States by David Roediger
Throughout history there has been continual injustice on declaring what white is
classified as, especially when adding the large amount of immigration into the United States. The
ramifications of this immigration furthered racial diversity, but in this also furthered the racism
of anyone not classified as a white person. In David Roedigers piece he highlights the historical
and factual information about immigration and touches on how despite declaring whiteness there
was no factual standard of determining that whiteness, though the most fundamental concept in
the piece is race as a social construct.
A bulk of the content covered in Whiteness and Ethnicity in the History of White
Ethnics in the United States is very factual, the most obvious key concept would be the
historical background of immigration and the aftermath on deciding race as well as the
contribution to systematic racism, but the underlying theme of his writing is that race is a social
construct. This can often be seen through by the lack of knowledge on how the United States
decides how, specifically involving immigration, the idea of whiteness is construed and practiced
as an ethnicity and the consequences that come with not being identified as a white person. The
historical information that Roediger presents is mostly concerning immigration and the effects
that has had over time on the racial standings of non-white individuals in the United States. The
idea of race as a social construct in the piece is specific to the points that Roediger makes about
the lack of knowledge on how ethnicity, specifically white ethnicity, was and is determined in

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society regarding immigration into the United States. This lack of knowledge is one of the very
large aspects that emphasizes that race rather than being a reality is established by society. But
neither was whiteness immediately development of a white identity, (Roediger 331) is a key
example of the historical perspective that even though whiteness was seen as an ethnicity it was
undefined. Though race is identified and normalized in society, it is merely a social construct,
which Roediger highlights in his piece by emphasizing both the lack of knowledge on identifying
ethnicities and the lack of classification on what is white.
The importance of this concept that race is a perpetuated concept pushed upon others by
societal influences rather than actual factual or even historical information. Much of the text is
very informational and analytical focusing highly on the historical influences that immigration
had on the identification and assessment of whiteness, or lack thereof. This lack of information
or historical background on the concept of race, specifically regarding whiteness, is the very
reason that it is so simple for society to push its own ideas of race and further whatever agenda it
may have. The authors significance concerning the idea of race being a social construct is also
prominent as it is centered on immigration rather than general political or cultural ideologies, but
rather both combined.
Immigration is a key part in the history of Unites States, diversifying the entire country
and fabricating issues involving race that would last centuries. The injustice faced by people
classified as non-white by a society that has not clear or concise determination of what white
ethnicity is, continues to stretch on. In David Roedigers work he calls attention to the history of
immigration regarding the classification of race and lack of knowledge on what actually is race
all leading to the fundamental concept that race is a social construct rather than factual and
historical information.

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Work Cited:
Roediger, David. Whiteness and Ethnicity in the History of White Ethnics in the United
States. Race Critical Theories: Texts and Contexts. Blackwell Publishers, 2002. 18 October
2015.