Irish-Americans, Racism, and the Pursuit of Whiteness

From the archive (originally posted 03-17-2009): Today in New York City and throughout the U.S.,  Irish-Americans will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and Irish heritage(Creative Commons Licensephoto credit: ktylerconk). What few will acknowledge in this day of celebration is the way in which the Irish in American deployed whiteness in order to deflect the racism they encountered in the U.S.

Kerry Band from the Bronx









  1. marandaNJ

    Thanks for posting this. It’s too true,unfortunately. I know that the Polish people and Italians in America had a terrible time with being accepted into the mainstream also. My grandmother was Polish and I always cringed when I heard children I grew up with tell ‘Pollack’ jokes.
    I may have mentioned before that I grew up in the south. I’m not claiming the south is the sole culprit of racism in America. I will say that because the south was a mainly agrarian culture before and after the Civil War, and far behind the north in the industrial revolution, southerners previously had a tendency to be more homogeneous than northerners.
    In other words, they lived in small rural communities where they seldom saw anyone they hadn’t known for 80 years. Immigrants Did Not exactly flock to the southern states. Maybe because they heard on the grapevine that they were even more unwelcome in the south than in the north in the US. When immigrant groups came to the US, they tended to live in little neighborhoods or ghettos together for very needed psychological support. In the 1800’s and first half of the 1900’s the WASP was seen as unjust and cruel by many European immigrants. And every single one of those terms were necessary for full acceptance in American mainstream: 1. white 2.anglo-saxon [this specifically meant from northern Europe even though the Irish are an exception to this] and 3. Protestant. When John Kennedy was elected president in 1960 it was a Big Milestone that ‘one of those Catholics’ was actually elected to be president. Newspapers wrote volumes about it.
    Anyway, the point is, I have definitely noticed how the villified groups have changed over time. The longer an ethnic group stays in America, the more accepted they are by the mainstream. And America chooses New Immigrants to demean and degrade.
    My grandmother lived in upstate New York. My family moved to the south when I was six. Even at that age, I noticed more of a closed society in the south than in the north. That’s why my being Catholic was such a sore thumb in the Bible Belt [what an ironic name for such intolerant people].
    I remember just 10 years ago going to dinner with another couple. The woman was of Italian descent. Her date was old money south. Well, the discussion got around to families of origin. And I distinctly remember her date saying,’Yeah, but you’re Still white anglo-saxon.’ This was the First Time I had ever heard Italians refered to as Anglo-Saxon. So, what can we conclude ladies and gents? That the Italians have finally made it to this anglo-saxon status now? Previously, no southern European was allowed in the anglo-saxon box. Neither were people from Slavic countries.
    Who still remains in the ‘them’ box now? The African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos from what I personally can observe. The Asians have gained status by their academic achievements, and are not as demeaned as they were once. Plus, if you are of Spanish descent and from South America, you are not as villified as if you are from South American-Native American descent.
    So, yes, the labeling of which race you belong to itself is fluid! And it’s a social construct and not based on actual overt physical features.

  2. Will

    It was a shame they went through the racism here and in Europe. Yet, when it’s all said and done, Irish Americans have the same privileges as anyone with pale skin has. Still, this is something that needs to be exposed especially on a day such as St. Patrick’s Day as the stereotypes of Irish people persist, and much of the celebration is reduced to wearing green and parties.

  3. Barry

    Interesting article. I’m Irish living in Ireland and have often been struck over the years by how racist Irish-Americans are towards other groups, particularly Blacks and Hispanics. And I’m talking about 1st generation immigrants from Ireland. Pretty ironic when you have immigrants considering themselves superior to people who’ve been in the country for generations. It’s also ironic that most of those Irish who arrived in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s were very poorly educated and yet still seem to think themselves better than Blacks and other groups. Oh sure, they worked hard and all the rest of it but it never seems to occur to them that maybe they were lucky to get those jobs in the first place and that maybe other groups may have faced more prejudice than them in getting work.

    Anyway, just thought I’d comment on this article. Because as far as I can tell, racism against Irish-Americans is a thing of the past while racism emanating from Irish-Americans is unfortunately still present today.


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