A Japanese immigrant named Takao Ozawa had lived in the United States for more than twenty years. He tried to make the case that he was worthy of citizenship and should qualify as white because his skin was lighter than that of many “white people.” He argued, what really was the difference? How could he not be white if his skin was white? What did it mean to be white if someone with actual white skin was not white? His case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1922, the Court held unanimously that white meant not skin color but “Caucasian,” and that Japanese were not Caucasian,
Been trying to be white for so long, and still trying
