Whiteness was a legally contested category that the Irish did not automatically possess

Evidence

The first Congress of the United States voted in 1790 that only “white” persons could be naturalized as citizens. Coming as immigrants rather than as captives or hostages undoubtedly affected the potential racial status of the Irish in America, but it did not settle the issue, since it was by no means obvious who was “white.” In the early years Irish were frequently referred to as “niggers turned inside out”; the Negroes, for their part, were sometimes called “smoked Irish,” an appellation they must have found no more flattering than it was intended to be. As late as 1864, a forged piece of Democratic campaign propaganda declared, “There is the strongest reason for believing that the first movement toward amalgamation in this country will take place between Irish and negroes.” Part of the reason for its effectiveness among the Irish was that it hit so close to the truth; as Fanny Kemble noted, the more Irishand Afro-Americans were lumped together, the greater the hostility between them. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 150

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidences the reader’s core premise that Irish arrival didn’t settle their racial standing — the 1790 naturalization law alone did not make them white. Connects to the chapter’s frame already established in earlier chapters. — connects to: The settler class claimed an Irish identity that excluded Irish natives — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 131; Whiteness for the Irish meant labor, legal, and residential rights, not wealth or status — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 36; Irish admission to whiteness had to be earned, not guaranteed by skin color. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 231 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Irish admission to whiteness had to be earned, not guaranteed by skin color. #corroborates (0.92) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 231
• Conflicting court rulings proved whiteness was legally incoherent and socially constructed #corroborates (0.88) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 535
• Irish ascension to whiteness resulted from strategic choice, not inevitability #expands (0.80) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 35
• The Irish actively pursued their own reclassification as white #expands (0.78) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 38
• Whiteness for the Irish meant labor, legal, and residential rights, not wealth or status #expands (0.75) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 36
• The Irish were the prototype white servants later absorbed into a white racial identity #expands (0.74)
• Legal whiteness did not confer social privileges of whiteness #qualifies (0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 354