Conversations about race often focus on what it means to be black, and throughout American history, laws have struggled with the rights of people of mixed race. But in her new book, The History of White People, historian Nell Irvin Painter explores the concept of whiteness — and explains how many ethnic groups now regarded as white, from Irish, Jews, Italians were once excluded from mainstream American society.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
