At the founding of the United States, two conflicting philosophies vied for supremacy.

The first, influenced by the more liberal aspects of the so-called Enlightenment, argued for a more democratic social-political structure under the assumption that all men are created equal. This philosophy sprang forth from the writings of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The second, influenced by the more conservative elements of the so-called Enlightenment, argued for more authoritarian rule because of human depravity. This viewpoint is mainly associated with Thomas Hobbes. 

Liberal thinkers in what would become the United States succeeded in enshrining their worldview in the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. Because both sides found common ground in Anglo-Saxon supremacy, as “all men” meant “all white men with property,” a compromise was reached. 

“We the people” became the law of the land as long as “people” was defined exclusively to include Anglo-Saxons.

While it was a given that Africans, Asians and Indigenous people were subhuman, all other non-Anglo Europeans simply “fell short.” Still, if there was a deficiency in melanin, they, too, could learn how to be white, some even reaching the echelons of those with Anglo-Saxon pedigree.

U.S. history provides examples of non-Anglo-Saxons being accepted as white.

First, there was the Germans in the 1700s. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin warned of the danger of Germans with their “