Reddit reviews Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940

I’d say Trump’s election also pulled in a lot of low income white people as well, anxious to make sure their spot in the pecking order (just slightly above people of color) doesn’t move. Basically some people fell for the same line of BS that worked back in the 1800s, when the system held “white” people were better than the Irish immigrants who were still better than black slaves. Read, “Making Whiteness”
Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679776206/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_B206Ab58NM6FE

I think these would help you understand the key arguments and points made about whiteness:

• Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940
  
  
• Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race
  
  
• How the Irish Became White
  
  Political Sociology articles that might interest you:
  
  
• Pettigrew, Thomas (1998). Reactions Toward the New Minorities of Western Europe. Annual Review of Sociology. 24(1) : 77-103.
  
  
• Banks, Antoine J, and Nicholas A Valentino. 2012. “Emotional Substrates of White Racial Attitudes.” American Journal of Political Science 56(2): 286–297
  
  
• Hutchings, L. Vincent and Valentino, Nicholas, A. (2004). The centrality of race in American politics. Annual Review of Political Science. 7(1): 383-408.
  
  
  I'm not expecting you to go away and read all this, but the books and articles can be found online (look up libgen and scihub if you need free access), so there's nothing to stop you skimming them or reading scholarly reviews. There's more where that came from so let me know if you have anything in particular you'd like to read about.