Was Arnold Schwarzeneggar a White Supremacist?
Was he White?
In 18th-century colonial America, prominent figures like Benjamin Franklin questioned whether Germans were truly white, viewing them as having a "swarthy" complexion that threatened the Anglo-Saxon character of the colonies. However, this rhetoric reflected cultural and political anxiety rather than a legal exclusion from whiteness. [1, 2, 3, 4]Franklin's Views on German Complexion
- In his 1751 essay Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc., Benjamin Franklin claimed that most Europeans—including Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians, and Germans—were "swarthy".
- He asserted that only the English and the Saxons made up the "principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth".
- Franklin worried that Pennsylvania would become "Germanized" and that German settlers would not adopt English customs or language. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Legal Status and Realities of Whiteness
- Despite Franklin's cultural xenophobia and complaints about their "complexion," Germans were never legally classified as non-white.
- They enjoyed the rights of free Europeans, could own property, and were fully eligible for naturalization under early colonial laws and later the Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted citizenship to "free white persons".
- The social friction was rooted in language, political power, and cultural assimilation fears rather than a systematic denial of racial privilege. [1, 2, 3, 4]
If you'd like, I can provide more details on:
- How the Naturalization Act of 1790 defined whiteness for European immigrants
- Benjamin Franklin's broader economic and political arguments against German settlement
- How 19th-century nativist movements later targeted other European groups like the Irish or Italians.
