The Whiteness Myth

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1923, an Indian American man named Bhagat Singh Thind argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that he was a white man and was therefore eligible to become a naturalized citizen. He based his claim on the fact that he was a member of India's highest caste and identified as an Aryan and therefore white. His claims were supported by the so-called Indo-European language theory, a controversial idea that says nearly half the world's population speak a language that originated in one place. Theories about who lived in that place inspired a racist ideology that contended that the original speakers of the language were a white supreme race that colonized Europe and Asia thousands of years ago. This was used by many to define whiteness and eventually led to one of the most horrific events in history. On this episode of Throughline, we unpack the myths around this powerful idea and explore the politics and promise of the mother tongue.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
0:24.2	The wretched refuse of your teaming shore.
0:29.9	In these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me.
0:36.0	I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
0:41.3	It's July 4th, 1913.
0:53.9	A ship called the SS Minnesota has landed at the port in Seattle.
0:59.2	It's carrying thousands of immigrants from India.
1:02.8	A 20-year-old man steps off that ship onto US soil.
1:07.2	His name is Bugget Singh Finn.
1:11.2	As he described himself, he was an upper caste, pure Brahmin Indian.
1:19.3	Finn was part of the highest caste in India, the Brahmin caste.
1:23.7	He learned about the promise of the US in books.
1:27.8	And he'd studied English literature in school in India.
1:31.9	And fell in love with Emerson and Thoreau and some of the American authors that he was
1:37.2	reading and studying him.
1:39.0	Their words were the reason he fell in love with America.
1:42.9	So he made the long journey across the Pacific Ocean, hoping to continue his education
1:48.0	in a university.
1:49.0	He attends UC Berkeley.
1:51.2	He works on the side in the logging and lumber industry to help finance his education.
1:56.3	And eventually he gets a PhD.
1:59.4	This is Amanda Frost.
	...

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