How did "white people" become one race in the United States when there used to be so many nationality distinctions?
How did "white people" become one race in the United States when there used to be so many nationality distinctions?
You're viewing a single thread.
While it isn't exclusively about America the book Caste discusses how "race" plays into social strata. Specifically the chunk that discusses the Indian caste system and how it isn't exclusively based on skin color. It shows how the interpretation of "race" is a lot more flexible than racists would have you believe
Probably a dumb question but I am black irish with red hair. Would the racists of yester year attack me?
Dude. You told me you were black.
Um I am what is the big deal?
No big deal, but the terminology is used in a way I've never seen before, and it made me confused.
See, depending on whether you're in the US, or Ireland, the term "black Irish" has different meanings.
In the US, Irish immigrants used the term to refer to Irish people with dark hair, eyes, and complexion, but that were still not African-American. Part of my family is black Irish in that sense. There's a lot of myth behind that, with various explanations of how and why that set of features came to be, including spanish settlement, but it wasn't used for folks with African ancestry.
Over in Ireland, black Irish is essentially the equivalent of African-American, people of African descent that live in Ireland.
Since you're from the US, it is surprising to see the term used for someone with red hair at all.
Anyway, it's all good, just means we have some shared ancestry, which is always interesting :)
That's kind of the point she makes, race isn't really about it. It's about creating social structures to have an oppressed class and a ruling class. It has more to do with the circumstances of your birth (which does typically highly correlate with your class) than the "distinctions". Racism has no logical backing, so expecting it to follow logical rules is a fallacy