how jews became white

In the reading “How Jews became white” the author, Karen Brodkin, tells us that she is in fact Jewish and she talks about all the different government assistances that helped the Jews to become as affluent as the stereotypes say they are.
Brodkin starts out talking about the Jewish people and goes on to say that they were not the only race who were victims of Anti- Semitism, Mexicans, Blacks and even Asians were victimized in the 19th century. But after WW II anyone who was of “Euro-origin” became a regular white, middle-class citizen. Brodkin says it was the “biggest and best affirmative action program, for Euro-males” that made the outcaste Europeans “white”.
Anti- Semitism was extremely prevalent in higher education institutions and since Jews were the first of the Euro-immigrants to go to school, they received the brunt of the racist attitudes. There was even a speech test given to immigrant teachers to see if they could speak well enough English, which Brodkin accounts her parents for saying “it was a way to keep all ethnics, not just Jews from teaching”. Ethnic groups had very little economic mobility but Jews, compared to the rest had the most, but were still limited to very few occupational opportunities. Of course Anti-Semitism didn’t disappear after the war but it became much less popular. The Jews and other Euro- immigrants were able to become “white” with their money, basically. The money came from all the jobs that were now available as well as government assistance. Post WW II , the U.S was the strongest economy around. Wages, buying power and jobs were all increasing. Then came the GI Bill of Rights as it was called. This was used to help the soldiers get jobs and be able to buy houses, but it only really helped the veterans that were of European origin. Blacks were denied their GI benefits, like education opportunities, white privilege took away any benefit a black soldier might receive. Black soldiers were even discriminated against during the war, they had almost twice the dishonorable discharges than the white soldiers. The urbanization, building of expressways, of the 60’s made those cities a “bad place to live”. The Federal Housing Administration who was supposed to help Blacks find a residence practiced segregation and prevented them from being able to move in the ever so white populated, suburbs. They redlined property making it so no bank would give a loan for that property, making sure that Blacks couldn’t afford to live there. Thus keeping Blacks out of the suburbs. All these denials to help Blacks actually helped the Jews and other Euros to become more economically mobile and “white”. When one is denied another thrives.
Being Jewish herself you would think she was biased but her article is very non-biased, in my opinion. Brodkin tells us that it was a part of her heritage’s beliefs that Jews were smart but it was the removal of social barriers as well as their abilities that allowed them to be more successful than other immigrants, comparatively. That statement (on page 38 and 39) is just what a reader would need to see that Brodkin is not biased by any means to one race or another, in this article.
I thought that this article was quite interesting. I have many Jewish friends and even they make fun of the fact that their family fits the stereotypes. But now, after reading this I learned that many Jewish children grew up believing that they were smart and that their successes were due to the own hard work. So, in a way I guess the fact that Jews are smart and are all lawyers or doctors shouldn’t really be a stereotype, because it is partly true.