The Racist Naturalization Act in the US

Ozawa and Thind

The claims of Ozawa and Thind to be "white" so as to be able to become naturalized citizens of the U.S. were predicated on separate arguments made by the two individuals. For Ozawa, the basis of his claim was that he had attended and graduated from university in California, had lived in Hawaii, and had for all intents and purposes been an American and "white" in terms of embracing Western culture and attending a "white" university in the States. His proposition was that he had acted as a free white man and thus could be identified as one.

To his argument that court simply showed that Ozawa was Japanese and therefore not Caucasian, that he could not be considered racially "white" and that he thus could not be included in the definition of "free white person" used by the framers of the Naturalization Act. The court's response was completely in line with the racist racialization that the U.S. had engaged in from its inception. It refused to recognize Ozawa as a natural citizen because of his race, evident in his skin color and physical features.

The same went for Thind, who actually claimed Aryan decent as a part of being from the northern region of India. Thind held that he was of the same racial origins as the "whites" of Europe as they both had the same ancestors. Thind's argument for being included in the definition of whiteness may have had some historical merit to it, but the court found that Thind's physical appearance did not meet the definition of "whiteness" that it held, that Thind would still be recognized as someone of foreign decent or of Indianness rather than of whiteness and that Thind's children would also be viewed as being of this different race, so therefore Thind could not be considered white.

Thind and Ozawa had little recourse for becoming naturalized citizens, as their race/ethnicity barred them from meeting the racist standards of the courts. They could not attempt to define themselves as Africans anymore than they could define themselves as white, because they were not from Africa and were not considered negroes at the time. Plus, identifying themselves as negroes would have been considered a step down in terms of class, for them, so they probably would have felt. That is why they wanted to be identified as white persons and not as blacks.

There is not much either one could have done, really; the law was set up to favor whites, because that is who the framers wanted in the country. It gradually went on to accept blacks as natural citizens, but only because the Civil War had opened that option and made it a possibility. It said nothing about accept persons from the far East or from the near East, and both Thind and Ozawa fell into these latter categories. Thus, the racialization of America continued and Thind and Ozawa were two more victims of American prejudice regarding race.