When we look back upon the history of America, discrimination against immigrants of color appears to be our greatest injustice. We remember the plight of African slaves, the trail of tears that followed Indian removal policies, and the exclusion of Asian Americans in times of war and times of racial animosity. We remember the color line. When asked to define one’s ethnicity today, we’re presented with the options of Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, African American, and white. ‘White’ still stands alone, ‘white’ is enough to complete the race question. But is ‘white’ enough to understand the prejudice faced by immigrants who shared only their color? Throughout America’s early history, white was civility—man above savagery. Regardless of the color of one’s skin, white was a privilege. We may think of Irish Americans today as ‘white,’ but there once was a time when they, too, were deemed an ‘other’. Although their immigration to America differed, socially and economically, African slaves and Irish immigrants were once near equals.
When Africans first arrived on Virginia’s shores in 1619, race had not yet been an identifier of status. While the presence of Africans in America was due to the transatlantic slave trade, they belonged to an economic class of indentured servants—both white and black. When discontent among the class arose, the Virginia elite began to realize the threat that they posed. “The planters had come to a crossroads. They could open economic opportunities to white workers and extend political privileges to them, but this would erode their own economic advantage…[Reorganizing] society on the basis of class and race” (Takaki 60), appeared to be the only option for controlling rebellion. Thus, a class of African American slaves was born. Meanwhile, in Ireland, “many Irish saw parallels between themselves as a degraded people and the blacks in bondage” (Takaki 142). Following the English invasion of 1649, Ireland had fallen under British rule. They transformed Ireland’s economy of agriculture into an economy of export, the peasantry being degraded to near-slaves under their landlords. This hardship existed in Ireland for nearly two hundred years before the famine struck, intensifying Irish suffering. After hearing of the opportunities in America—of jobs and an escape from British tyranny—survivors of the famine began to leave the Emerald Isle. Africans and Irishmen alike lived under the hand of a European oppressor, bringing both groups to America. But while Africans arrived by force, with no choice in their captivity, the Irish arrived by necessity; emigrating to America was a matter of survival. Although their immigration to America may have differed, African Americans and Irish Americans would soon come to find that, in the American mindset, they didn’t differ that much at all.
Socially, Africans and Irish in America came to adopt the stereotypes associated with savagery. For African Americans, “slavery had become so widespread that, to many whites, it seemed like the natural state for black people” (Herbes-Sommers, Race - The Power of an Illusion). They were seen as inferior in intelligence, lazy, libidinous, and a threat to racial purity.