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David Roediger’s Whiteness and Race brings forth the debate of what it meant to “become white” and how it pertained to the different immigrant groups within the United States.  Reading Roediger’s work as a way to understand the racial history of the Untied States, the primary argument for this piece is the perception of the American people of the incoming immigrants.  The question asked by Roediger is how the different ethnic groups obtain the title of “white” and how this shaped the racial identity of the arriving Europeans.  By using Upton Sinclair’s King Coal, Roediger brings forth a racial hierarchy that developed within the United States.  As the Americans and the British occupied the primary rung of the hierarchical ladder, the degree of “whiteness” is diluted as it spreads from the British Isles and into Southern and Eastern Europe.  With the allotment of “whiteness” coupled with nationalities and religion, becoming “white” in American culture was obtained through the degradation of the African American community and an assimilation into the American culture.  Gravity21 see Frederick Douglas’ mention of the Irish as a warning that they too will treat the African American community with the same degree as the Americans.  However, it is in this passage that Douglas brings forth the belief that racial identities did not transcend national boundaries.  This became an important aspect in the challenges to “becoming white.”  As a basis for a historical  approach to the discussion of race in the United States, the article’s focus on immigrant groups allows for race to be discussed as a social construction in response to an influx of ethnic or religious groups that do not define themselves according to the nation’s societal standards.