US Politics on Sidechat | Weird question but do yall think Irish and Italians should be held to the same standard when it comes to discussing some of the more racist parts of history? Like obviously they did some crummy stuff too but ya know

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US Politics 5w

Weird question but do yall think Irish and Italians should be held to the same standard when it comes to discussing some of the more racist parts of history? Like obviously they did some crummy stuff too but ya know

Anonymous 5w

See the important distinction is whether people are still experiencing harm from past events. That’s the difference. Slavery wouldn’t still be as big a subject in the modern day if black people were not still suffering from its effects. But Irish and Italians solidly managed to wiggle their way into whiteness and from the 40s onward benefited from their white status and were privileged from it.

Anonymous 5w

Wdym

Anonymous 5w

Eh, my family descends from Irish immigrants and I wouldn’t say I think we deserve much pity or like reparations. I’m sure my ancestors experienced some racism when they got here but it’s not like it really held our family back from gaining economic footing. Everyone has pretty much done well for themselves the past few generations. So is it worth acknowledging those groups experienced racism? Sure. Should they be “held to the same standard” (I assume you mean compared to African-Americans)? No

Anonymous 5w

my sociology class on Racism & Inequality had a textbook that went into details about how the Irish were granted white privilege and suffrage at the expense of Black and brown people that they lived amongst and worked with, basically leveraging their collective rights with the rights of their peers. It was pretty nuts to hear about, considering my grandmother is 100% Irish…

Anonymous 5w

We teach that the Irish came as indentured servants and the Italians were discriminated against. But when they were accepted into what’s known as whiteness, the Irish went on to own enslaved Africans and Italians supported racist and discriminatory laws. So what’s ur point exactly?

Anonymous

#1 5w

Idk I just think it’s important to remember history so it doesn’t happen again but like, the blame game is pretty fun and as someone who’s a lot more Irish than most Americans (like 82%) I wouldn’t mind getting in on that game. This is more for the lols tbh, obviously the Irish didn’t have it the worse

Anonymous

#2 5w

And I think a lot of people would relate to this as well. Hell Irish-Americans are literally all over the place in the corporate world and in suburban communities. I don’t think our families were significantly disadvantaged like black people were

Anonymous

#3 5w

I’ve heard that too, honestly it’s sad, especially cause even after that happened it wasn’t universal. Sold our souls and got burned for it…

Anonymous

#4 5w

Very true, very.. sadly… true…. This was more meant to be a bit of fun cause obviously what the Irish and Italians went through wasn’t even close to what black, Asian, latino, arabs, and especially native Americans went through but I’m glad everyone is being very respectful about it and just politely correcting me lol.

Anonymous 5w

Kinda dropping the joke for a serious thing but I think we should be very careful with teaching about it. We got off pretty easy.. Also if you don’t think the Irish had slurs then you really should look into them, I can’t even say one of them but it was basically “white n word”

Anonymous

thereal._.ruckus 5w

Huh, I thought the “white acceptance” didn’t happen till after the civil war. That said I have no doubts that not every paddy was a human rights advocate when during our troubles

Anonymous

thereal._.ruckus 5w

Oh and my point was this was more meant to be for fun, but I see people are taking it respectfully serious which honestly I appreciate.

Anonymous

OP 5w

As an Irish American whose family moved to Philadelphia around the time of the Nativist Riots, I wholeheartedly agree with #4. If we were speaking about it in the context of world history, a point could absolutely be made for the Irish, who still are divided after centuries of British occupation.

Anonymous

OP 5w

Depended on the wave of immigration and religious denomination mostly. Colonial Irish from the 18th century famine were accepted quickly, especially if they had Protestant backgrounds. Mid-19th century genocide refugees faced a lot more pushback since they were mostly Roman Catholic. At the time, they were conscripted to fight Mexico and the Confederacy and faced violence from conservative groups like the Know Nothings

Anonymous

OP 5w

When it comes to Italians yea. The Irish gained acceptance into whiteness after bacon’s rebellion. That’s when chattel slavery started becoming popular in the US. Free white and black ppl and enslaved black and white ppl all fought together against the rich elites over native Americans and economic issues. That’s when the concept of whiteness started becoming popular in the US and the Irish considered white.

Anonymous

OP 5w

Oh ok, that’s cool