Irish ascension to whiteness resulted from strategic choice, not inevitability

Evidence

As we know, things turned out otherwise. The outcome was not the inevitable consequence of blind historic forces, still less of biology, but the result of choices made, by the Irish and others, from among available alternatives. To enter the white race was a strategy to secure an advantage in a competitive society. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 35

Categorization

• XREF: This is the precise inversion the reader seeks — category ascent achieved by oppressing others, structurally distinct from reclamation-of-protection cases. — connects to: Irish immigrants learned anti-Black hatred upon landing in America, not at home — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 6; Irish and free blacks were speculatively expected to amalgamate; A group can move from oppressed to oppressor by changing its racial assignment — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 31 (+15 more)
• SEED: Angle: a taxonomy of category ascension routes — protected via reclamation vs. protected via joining the oppressor group — and the moral asymmetry between them.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Irish admission to whiteness had to be earned, not guaranteed by skin color. #corroborates (0.95) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 231
• Irish whiteness required excluding blacks from any shared occupation and erasing memory #expands (0.80) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 400
• Whiteness is a moral choice, not a fixed identity. #corroborates (0.80) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 594
• Early unions operated as schools teaching Irish whiteness #expands (0.78) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 412
• European immigrants earned whiteness by adopting anti-nonwhite antagonism #expands (0.75)
• Social whiteness for immigrant groups was conditional on Protestant assimilation #qualifies (0.72)