Fleeing English oppression and poverty, thousands of Irish set out for other parts of the world. When they first came to North America, while the British still occupied what is now the U.S.A. and into the mid-1800s, the Irish were treated as something other than what we would today call “White.” The real White people were English, French, Germans, Nordics, but not the Irish.
The Irish periodically joined hands with Africans and Native Americans in fighting injustice, such as in the famous 1741 slave insurrection conspiracy in New York. Yet, by the middle of the 1800s, the Irish found themselves in the process of becoming “White” as the larger society needed more settlers in order to ensure the success of the process of the domination of North America.
Thus, the irony is that Irish fled an oppressive system that defined them as an inferior “race”—despite no difference in color from the oppressors—only to enter into a system where they were encouraged to abandon other victims of racial oppression—such as Africans, Native Americans, Mexicans, and Asians—in favor of becoming loyal “White people.”
Here is the other irony: the indigenous Irish (Catholics) of Northern Ireland remain dominated by the British and their Loyalist allies. The Irish (Catholics) continue to perceive themselves to be victims of what they describe as “anti-Irish racism.” Yet, this matter of racism, whether “anti-Irish” or anti-Black, rarely enters into discussions among Irish Americans, whether on St. Patrick’s Day or any of the other 364 days of the year.
(Bill Fletcher Jr. is the host of The Global African on Telesur-English. He is a racial justice, labor and global justice writer and activist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and at www.billfletcherjr.com.)
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