Irish admission to whiteness had to be earned, not guaranteed by skin color.
Evidence
As we know, the Irish in America chose not to go the whole hog, but opted instead for the privileges and burdens of whiteness. The outcome was not a foregone conclusion. In this chapter I have tried to suggest that, while the white skin made the Irish eligible for membership in the white race, it did not guarantee their admission; they had to earn it. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 231
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Irish ascension to whiteness resulted from strategic choice, not inevitability — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 35; Irish whiteness required excluding blacks from any shared occupation and erasing memory — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 400; Whiteness was defined through exclusion of non-black immigrant groups too. (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Irish whiteness required excluding blacks from any shared occupation and erasing memory
#corroborates(0.95) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 400 - Whiteness was defined as exclusion from black occupation, not skin or work
#corroborates(0.88) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 399 - Racial identification is learned, not observed in skin color.
#expands(0.80) - Becoming Christian did not gain Black people access to Whiteness.
#corroborates(0.75) - Legal whiteness did not confer social privileges of whiteness
#qualifies(0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 354 - Whiteness was defined through exclusion of non-black immigrant groups too.
#qualifies(0.72) - Asian American assimilation did not grant them entry to Whiteness.
#qualifies(0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 347