Between 1828 and
1854, Irish Americans constituted the largest group of immigrants in the United
States (Roediger 136). Following
Ireland’s potato famine in the 1840s, Irish Americans hasted to the shores of
America with hopes of work, opportunity, land, and prosperity. They arrived here poor and desperate, but
willing to work hard. Much like African
Americans, the Irish were likely never to return to their homeland again. In addition, both groups retained jobs of the
lowest laboring class, often in domestic services and without special skills
that other groups, such as the Germans, possessed. Both the African Americans and the Irish
Americans were poor, oppressed, and most likely occupied the northern part of
the United States, for reasons of industrial laboring opportunities. For all of these reasons, it is easy to see
how comparable African Americans were with Irish Americans in the antebellum
United States. In fact, the two groups
were often considered parallels insomuch as social status was concerned, much
to the disconcertion of the Irish.
Irish Americans had many reasons to
be explicitly racist, pro-slavery, and discriminatory against African
Americans. The most obvious reason is
the defense of the white working class.
African Americans were a threat to the industrial opportunities that the
United States offered Irish American immigrants, especially the North, and
while the Irish very well could have attacked the large number of other races
and people competing in the job market, they chose to assail the African
American race instead. African Americans
were less likely to fight back when attacked, were easily victimized, and
provided an antithesis of exactly what Irish Americans did not want to be.
Arriving in a country where nativists were hesitant to accept
immigrants as citizens, Irish Americans needed to define themselves as white. They helped define their whiteness by
stubbornly defining what they were not:
black. They refused to identify
with the black race, asserting that blacks were not worthy to be called
American citizens. Irish Americans
needed to be viewed as white for political rights and for more job
opportunities. They therefore attacked
all people surrounding them that were not white, including African Americans
and even the Chinese race. They wanted
not only to be American, but to be white Americans. Their wish came true, and the American
population came to accept the Irish as whites.
In order to keep this identity, Irish Americans continued to push
African Americans away, even engaging in acts of violence to show their devotion
to the white population. Because they
were accepted among the white population, they were adamant on a white
supremacy ideology to further confirm their status as a citizen with all
political and economical rights. With
these rights, Irish Americans were able to gain independence and fulfill the
dreams that America had promised. To be
white was to be free and prosperous, a citizen of a country full of
promise. To be black, however, was to be
oppressed, ridiculed, poor, and unfree. Naturally, the Irish chose the
latter.
Irish Americans cleverly discovered that by clinging to the
Democratic Party, which favored the citizenship of Irish Americans due to their
large number and voting power, they were further safeguarded from being
identified as black. The Democratic
Party, in turn, was predominantly pro-slavery and white supremacist, further
strengthening Irish hatred for African Americans.
Preexisting thoughts about blacks
also contributed to the racist ideas that the Irish Americans held. To the Irish, a person with dark skin was
thought to be the devil. Even if they had arrived in America with no knowledge
of the social and economic standing of colored people, there is no reason to
suspect that they would not have treated this race with contempt and
abhorrence, if not fear, without the help of a country already deeply embodied
in racist ethos. Blacks were also
affiliated with the British, and the Irish wanted nothing more to do with
England or any of its associates. The
Catholic Church, as well, did not by any means mitigate the Irish animosity
towards African Americans. According to
the Catholic Church, God created people of color not as humans, not even as
creatures with potential to be humans, but solely as a “negro” (Roediger 140).
A final reason for racism within the
Irish American people lies in projection. The Irish Americans left their
homeland in a state of devastation and poverty, only to arrive in America
penniless and desolate once again. They
were accused of being lazy, rash, and irresponsible. Unhappy with their present circumstances in
the United States and of their past lives back in Ireland, they desperately
projected these accusations towards the group of people that, by attacking,
would benefit them financially, economically, and socially. Conveniently, an attack on the African
American race was already widespread in the United States, and by clinging to
this ideology, the Irish Americans asserted their place as true Americans.
Works
Cited
Roediger, David R. “Irish American Workers and White Racial
Formation in the
Antebellum United States.” The
Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making
of the
American
Working Class. Ed. Mike Davis and
Michael Sprinker. New York: Verso,
1999 (1991). 133-163.
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