Irish people were actually considered “non-white” throughout most of the history of race as a concept.
That’s a myth. I’ve seen the Ellis Island records of my Irish ancestors’ arrival in the US. There’s a Race box, and what was filled in for them (and others with Irish surnames that I noticed) was WHITE.
Note that Irish immigrants could own property, get bank accounts and credit, and could vote. They held public office from early in the wave of immigration. In the Western US, the earliest English-speaking settlers included a large percentage of Irish-Americans (including several of my ancestors). There was prejudice in hiring, and in boarding houses. But these were informal, at a time when there were formal legal barriers against Black Americans and Chinese immigrants.
It’s perfectly possible to be classified as white but still oppressed for other reasons. In the US in the 19th and early 20th century, that reason was mainly anti-Catholic prejudice, followed by classism. The KKK were against the Irish because of their Catholicism, as is shown by contemporary pamphlets and records of speeches. And those were the same reasons the English were so virulently anti-Irish-- those and the fact that the Irish were living on some land that they wanted to steal.
This does not mean that it’s impossible for Irish people to be racist themselves
The Draft Riots in New York city during the Civil War provides an illustrative example of that. Also memoirs of some of my ancestors (one was quite proud of his role in making his town in New Mexico a sunset town). Anti-Chinese racism was also widespread and violent in the West.
That’s a myth. I’ve seen the Ellis Island records of my Irish ancestors’ arrival in the US. There’s a Race box, and what was filled in for them (and others with Irish surnames that I noticed) was WHITE.
Note that Irish immigrants could own property, get bank accounts and credit, and could vote. They held public office from early in the wave of immigration. In the Western US, the earliest English-speaking settlers included a large percentage of Irish-Americans (including several of my ancestors). There was prejudice in hiring, and in boarding houses. But these were informal, at a time when there were formal legal barriers against Black Americans and Chinese immigrants.
It’s perfectly possible to be classified as white but still oppressed for other reasons. In the US in the 19th and early 20th century, that reason was mainly anti-Catholic prejudice, followed by classism. The KKK were against the Irish because of their Catholicism, as is shown by contemporary pamphlets and records of speeches. And those were the same reasons the English were so virulently anti-Irish-- those and the fact that the Irish were living on some land that they wanted to steal.
The Draft Riots in New York city during the Civil War provides an illustrative example of that. Also memoirs of some of my ancestors (one was quite proud of his role in making his town in New Mexico a sunset town). Anti-Chinese racism was also widespread and violent in the West.