Irish immigrants achieved whiteness through work on Detroit’s assembly lines

Evidence

John’s ancestors were immigrants too. They arrived from Ireland, with many pulled to the Greater Detroit area to work for the booming auto industry. On the assembly lines, they worked for their families and “worked toward whiteness,” which they achieved while pursuing the American dream. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 182

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘worked toward whiteness’ line echoes whiteness-studies scholarship (Ignatiev’s ‘How the Irish Became White’) — a useful counterpoint to later Arab-American racialization in the book. — connects to: The Democratic Party taught Irish immigrants the meaning of whiteness. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 286
• SEED: Angle: comparing how Irish immigrants ‘worked toward whiteness’ via labor versus how Muslim Americans are racialized away from whiteness via terror — a strong comparative essay.