Whiteness As Ambivalence

“How did Jew become white folks in the United States?” offers some valuable perceptions on the dynamics of race in the U.S. Moreover, the principal categorizations which have assigned Jews into the white race category helped to form the way in which various American Jews have created their own racial identities. Author Sacks explains these make up through the examination of her own multi-generational family make up. She describes how Jews had to deal with the double standards of racial mindlessness and assimilation with respect to being white in the U.S. Nonetheless, the same way Irish American was treated during the mid-19th century followed by other groups such as the eastern, central, and southern Europeans and later the Jews reaffirms the
Yet, one of the most noticeable points that the author also hedges upon is the major aspect of "Whiteness as Ambivalence,”. While it is fascinating, to understand why Jews were not recognized as whites in America at first in the United States is not anything new given the history of the US how far it has come in terms racial equality. For example, the author discusses her own experiences and talks about her Jewish parents and grandparents living in New York during the period when Jews were not considered as white folks. Even though Jews just makes up three percent of the American population, they have mostly had a bigger representation in businesses, and governmental sectors. The American Jewish group, apart from witnessing severe assimilation issues coupled with anti-semitism sentiments from the “White race” during the early twentieth century give this group lot of clout to organize in other words become stronger as a society. Nevertheless, in order for the Jewish population to be accepted as “Whites Folks” they had to actually work extremely harder to bond and find their place in American society. Moreover, apart from the factors mentioned before are all reasons as to why Jews were able to overcome these steep hurdles, but two major factors that helped to drive Jews from not being recognized as “White Folks” to actually becoming “White Folks” is directly linked to the availability of GI bill and the ability to get an sound education and forming a very close knitted Jewish communities in order to establish a good support system to