Race mattered only after Irish replaced blacks, when blacks stopped undercutting

Evidence

All the information on displacement of Afro-Americans (except for the artisan trades) can be read without the slightest reference to race. The race question comes up after the Irish have replaced the Afro-Americans in the jobs. Now it was the black workers who were hungry and desperate, willing to work for the lowest wage. Why, then, were they not hired to undercut the wages of the Irish, as sound business principles would dictate? Why did the thrifty Yankee employers, always on the lookout for a bargain, fail to take advantage of the cheapest labor power available regardless of color? It is here that the organization of labor along race lines makes itself felt. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 395

Categorization

• XREF: Core comparison insight for category reclassification: change of status marked by the point where the old group can no longer compete. — connects to: Being grouped with blacks increased Irish hostility toward them. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 150; Irish whiteness required excluding blacks from any shared occupation and erasing memory — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 400; Irish mob violence against Blacks arose from labor competition, not prior hatred — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 488 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The inversion—competition absent precisely where race is present—drives the whole causal argument at top density.

Broader Connections

• Irish whiteness required excluding blacks from any shared occupation and erasing memory #expands (0.85) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 400
• Irish mob violence against Blacks arose from labor competition, not prior hatred #corroborates (0.82) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 488
• Irish admission to whiteness had to be earned, not guaranteed by skin color. #corroborates (0.80) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 231
• Irish ascension to whiteness resulted from strategic choice, not inevitability #qualifies (0.75) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 35