Yeah...LOL. They referred to themselves as Christian, gentlemen, or as "civilized" before they started using "white" which was reserved for land-owning anglos specifically - that is how they identified privilege. Not even Southern and Eastern Europeans need apply. When the original citizenship act of 1790 was written it caused much confusion because even most white people didn't know what it exactly meant. But it became politically expedient to expand this privilege to other people of the lighter skinned variety - it was called Jacksonian Democracy - which happened to be incredibly racist and overtly white supremacist which meant that, among other things, one could qualify for 164 acres of free (stolen) land so long as you were white and male. Look it up. History's actually pretty fascinating stuff you should read some.