Irish whiteness required excluding blacks from any shared occupation and erasing memory
Evidence
To be acknowledged as white, it was not enough for the Irish to have a competitive advantage over Afro-Americans in the labor market; in order for them to avoid the taint of blackness it was necessary that no Negro be allowed to work in occupations where Irish were to be found. Still better was to erase the memory that Afro-Americans had ever done those jobs. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 400
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Historical reality is messier than fiction yet follows its essential plot. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 262; Irish ascension to whiteness resulted from strategic choice, not inevitability — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 35; Irish admission to whiteness had to be earned, not guaranteed by skin color. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 231 (+13 more)
Broader Connections
- Social whiteness for immigrant groups was conditional on Protestant assimilation
#qualifies(0.82) - Closer proximity to whiteness can intensify exclusion rather than reduce it
#expands(0.80) — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 29 - Religious identity racialized Irish Catholics as a separate inferior race
#qualifies(0.80) - Whiteness is structurally fragile, needing constant self-assertion to sustain its privilege
#expands(0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1112 - Cultural attributes can be racialized even when skin tone matches whiteness
#expands(0.78) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 299 - Whiteness grants presumptive belonging that race-neutral legal status does not
#expands(0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 906 - White critique faces a double bind that disaffiliation from whiteness cannot simply resolve
#expands(0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 781 - Racism against Europeans like the Irish predated color-based slavery
#responds-to(0.72)