The Democratic Party taught Irish immigrants the meaning of whiteness.
Evidence
The Irish did not vote Democratic-Republican and then Democratic out of sentimental attachment to those who gave them the vote. The Democratic Party eased their assimilation as whites, and more than any other institution, it taught them the meaning of whiteness. Key to this was the Party’s rejection of nativism. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 286
Categorization
- SEED: Angle: political parties as institutions that teach racial meaning — the party as a credentialing/category-assignment apparatus.
- XREF: connects to: Irish ascension to whiteness resulted from strategic choice, not inevitability — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 35; Irish immigrants achieved whiteness through working the auto assembly lines — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 182; Early unions operated as schools teaching Irish whiteness — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 412 (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- European immigrants held an intermediate racial status and were induced to become white
#expands(0.90) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 40 - European immigrants became white by projecting lost freedoms onto racialized others.
#expands(0.90) - European immigrants earned whiteness by adopting anti-nonwhite antagonism
#expands(0.90) - Irish immigrants achieved whiteness through working the auto assembly lines
#expands(0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 182 - Irish immigrants achieved whiteness through work on Detroit’s assembly lines
#expands(0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 182 - Irish immigrants learned anti-Black hatred upon landing in America, not at home
#expands(0.85) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 6 - Early unions operated as schools teaching Irish whiteness
#qualifies(0.80) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 412 - Irish whiteness required excluding blacks from any shared occupation and erasing memory
#expands(0.80) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 400 - Whiteness was defined through exclusion of non-black immigrant groups too.
#expands(0.80)