IRISH - AMERICANS: FROM NEGLECTED TO ACCEPTED
BY STUDENT
How
is it that the Irish have gone from being such a hated group of people to a celebrated
group that everyone wants to be a part of during a special day in March? The
journey the Irish took to become accepted citizens by Anglo-Americans is not
one to be taken lightly. Like other ethnic groups around the world, a massive
wave of Irish immigrants came to the United States in search of a better life.
Little did they know of the struggles and challenges they would face in the
years to come. These challenges, although unique, are not all that different
than the struggles Asians, Spanish and African Americans faced and continued to
face. What makes the Irish stand out is the fact that they have somehow been
released from the degrading stereotypes that held them back over a hundred
years ago. In this post, I will go into the journey the Irish made to see if
there are any pieces of information that could help explain why the Irish are
not as heavily discriminated against as the other ethnic groups.
Once
the Irish arrived in America, they, as others, were desperate for money. They
took the jobs that no one else wanted, which were the dirty, low-paying ones.
They were treated poorly and were looked down upon to the point that, “No group
was considered lower than an Irishman in America during the 1850s” (Kinsella).
Signs saying “No Irish Need Apply” started popping up in store windows. In
addition to this, the Irish were discriminated against based on their religion;
America was a place where English Protestants dominated. Irish immigrants
developed the reputation that they are lazy and drink day and night. The truth
behind the matter is that the Irish felt threatened every time they stepped
outside. They did not know if they would be ridiculed for their brogue, their
lowly job, or their culture. Instead, the Irish kept together usually to pray
but mostly to drink and have fun. Unfortunately this only fed that stereotype
of the Irish created by the Anglo-Americans. As the Irish persevered through all the hate,
people realized that they were actually hard workers and they were “extremely
nice people despite their flaws” (Muhammad 101). Even though the Irish were
still very passionate about their home country, they were also quite passionate
about the United States, and this sense of nationalism made them “unique among
immigrants” (Kinsella). When the Civil War began, ethnic groups were usually on
the front lines, especially African Americans. Most of the time they were
forced to fight, but this was not the case for the Irish. The Irish were right
there ready to fight. They formed the well-known “Irish Brigade” and gladly
fought for the United States.” Before each battle, they would pray and fight
even in the most hopeless of situations. This patriotism caught the eyes of
many Americans. Were the Irish as drunk, horrible, and useless as they had
previously made them out to be? People’s perceptions of Irish immigrants began
to change and evolve from opinions of loathing and disdain to opinions of
approval and acceptance.
As
one can see, the Irish overcame many obstacles to get to where they are today. During
the last half of the nineteenth century, it was unheard of that an
Irish-Catholic could become President, and it was not until 1960 when John F.
Kennedy was elected that this perception changed. This event pushed Americans
even further into looking at the Irish in a different and better light. They
“had borne the brunt of American resentment and prevailed” (The History Place).
Although I have focused primarily on the Irish, the concept of a long and
treacherous journey parallels many groups of people throughout history. African
Americans are a great example of this. People thought we would have a female
president before a black president, but President Obama changed that just as
JFK did 48 years prior. Over time, groups of people are generally accepted by
the general population. However, the African American community has not been totally accepted yet. “Generally
accepted” means two things in my opinion; the groups of people who have
immigrated understand that they are in a new place and must assimilate, and
that the people who already live there understand that there will be some
changes, but that they must be open to them. Perhaps the reason why African
Americans have not been completely accepted like the Irish is because both
sides of this definition have not been fulfilled. History clearly shows that
whites have not treated blacks equally and ever since then blacks have
resisted. Even to this day it seems both these groups are in constant conflict.
Both sides are preventing the other from succeeding, which is only detrimental
to everyone involved. As one can see, Irish immigrants have shared a similar
and yet different journey to acceptance than other groups of people. They have
paved the way to becoming a normal part of society that doesn’t include a label
of “outsider”. They have shown other groups of immigrants that acceptance
really is possible. The real question, however, is how long does that
acceptance really take?
“Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th
Century,” Kinsella. Last updated
August 2008. Accessed September 23, 2013. http://www.kinsella.org/history/histira.htm
“Irish Potato Famine: Gone to America,” The History Place. Copyright 2000. Accessed September 23, 2013. http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/america.htm
Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The
Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2011.
I really liked your use of the word "release" to describe how Irish Americans no longer suffer the burden of being stereotyped. I wonder if nationalism towards the U.S. can be a solution for other ethnic groups to gain acceptance and be free from stereotypes, as it proved to be for Irish Americans.
ReplyDeleteI you provide an excellent point that immigrants being able to be "generally accepted" requires them to know that they have to assimilate. I never thought about it until you pointed it out. If I never thought about it, perhaps some immigrants also haven’t. A lot of immigrants come to America in search for a new life, as you stated, but how many of them understand that they might need to accept American customs along with it?
I definitely agree with you with regards to your question. Perhaps this topic can be related to the content we are currently learning in class (majority/minority). Does this dual acceptance have to do with the fear of an infiltrating culture? In other words, do Americans only accept immigrants who assimilate to American culture because they do not want to see another culture taking over the existing "American way of life?" Maybe this is the only way Americans know how to protect their culture, but that idea is definitely up for discussion.
DeleteI see what you are saying, and it is a definitely a point to consider. What are they so afraid of?
DeleteThis is an interesting perspective. Are there some cultures that assimilate much more easily than others because their culture happens to align more with American culture? Also, where does skin color come into play? Is it easier for white immigrants to be more readily accepted than immigrants of color? In modern times, how do we view American culture? It's strange that people of color have been part of our culture and history for so long and yet we are still more accepting of white immigrants. In fact, people from white immigrant families are often just considered "white" and "American" rather than Irish-American or Italian-American. One could argue that African Americans are so much a part of American history that they shouldn't even be expected to "assimilate" but rather others should assimilate to them. It's interesting...
ReplyDeleteI do agree with everything you said. Although it is a terrible thing, I do think skin color is a factor when it comes to acceptance. I think that some people are quicker to accept those who look like them, and when the majority or people are white, then accepting those of a different skin color can pose a challenge. Therefore, white immigrants are more likely to be accepted than black immigrants (or any other group). Hopefully with this current idea of majority minority discussed in class, acceptance can be achieved more easily for all groups. Who really knows though, right?
DeleteThis article was enjoyable to read because it brought a new minority to the forum posts. I think the struggles the Irish, and many other minorities such as the Italians, have faced are being overlooked in our society. These minorities have been “released” from the social discrimination that they faced in the twentieth century but it does not mean they can’t relate to what many other minorities are facing today. I do believe the black community still faces more discrimination because it is easier to pick out a black person because of his/her skin color than an Irish person. I find it terrible that we could accept the new white immigrant before we accept the immigrant of color that’s lived here for all his/her life. The question is how can we convince people to look past physical characteristics and judge people by their morals?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you appreciated this article. I wanted to make a point that although we do not really talk about the criminalization of the Irish or even the Italians (except perhaps when these groups are connected with mobs), they were still under scrutiny for a very long time. The problem is just that though, time. Why is it that it took a shorter amount of time for the Irish to be accepted whereas it has taken much longer for blacks to be accepted? I could not agree more with your point about judging people by their morals and not their physical appearance.
DeleteThe perspective that you saw this through whilst writing was a little eye-opening because I never truly thought of the Irish to be looked down upon in American society; the stereotype was in the back of my head and the information was there as well, but I never really put the two together to the point where I thought that the Irish ever felt inferior to others in America. After the age of industrialization, though, let's not forget that many of the white land lords who were in charge, so to speak, were in fact Germans and Irish. They were in the same situation that Italians and other southern and eastern Europeans were put in mere decades later. Instead of lending a hand to their fellow European brethren, however, they stepped on them by overcharging with rent and packing them into tenements that were ill-equipped with sanitation and infested with rodents. It is true the way that you put it, but there are two sides to every story, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting point. Some Irish did fall into that brutal cycle of becoming greedy landlords. Perhaps this was the only way they knew how to make money. They saw the people before them do it and once they had that inkling of power they took full advantage of it in the only way they knew, but I'm not agreeing with their decisions. However, most of the Irish immigrant population gained power and acceptance in more "blue collar" jobs within labor and trade unions. Maybe some Irish immigrants abused their power once they worked their way up the social ladder, but that is not the case for the majority of them.
DeleteDiscrimination followed by acceptance is a common denominator in this class. I for one, didn't realize that there was so much discrimination of many of the ethnic groups we have talked about in this class. The Irish being one of them. I am of Irish Heritage so this came as a surprise to me as it is such a celebrated culture. I would also like to know why discrimination upon first arrival in the United States is so prevalent. From our previous studies it can be seen that the main reasons are because immigrants take jobs that could have been had been an American citizen that was already here. Many don't speak English which can be seen as anti-nationalism by those that have an extreme sense of American pride. This however, is not a well sought reason to disapprove of non-English speaking immigrants because the United States does not have an official language. These are just theories which may never be solved.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very nicely written post about Irish immigration and assimilation into the U.S. society. The Irish were the first wave of immigrants and you wrote about many ethnics groups but also Italians went through this exact same thing, just in the second wave of immigration. People did not like Italians to begin with, calling them Waps as a degrading nickname to mean someone with out papers. My father had to assimilate into society when he moved into the U.S. and he remembers being called this nickname multiple times. African Americans however have a different form of assimilation into society since they did not immigrate here they were just oppressed by whites for many years until the end of slavery and ultimately segregation. There is still a large split between African Americans and whites of society as you have stated and that will take a long time to change.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this piece, we haven't spoken much about the Irish as minorities in class. I agree completely with what you said about how maybe groups become less discriminated against and more accepted when they show their dedication and patriotism to the US, which makes me think that maybe US citizens are so hesitant to accept latino/a immigrants into our society because they supposedly fail to assimilate into our culture. Meanwhile, the Irish may not have gone right into American culture, however they showed their dedication to this country. Many Latinos/as don't speak English well and don't want to learn it, this could very well be why many people refuse to accept them into our society and accept those like the Irish.
ReplyDeleteHannah B
ReplyDeleteThis post pointed out a topic that I had never taken the time to think about or education myself on. I never knew that the Irish were targeted at such a brutal level. To the point that they were scared to step outside in fear of being called an alcoholic or dirty. When I think about discrimination during the 1850s in America, especially after this class Latinos and African Americans come to mind first. I am glad that the author of this blog brought the issue of Irish immigration to attention for it should definitely not be ignored. I wish we had the opportunity in class to talk more about the different ethnic minorities that immigrated to the US and about their experiences. Many, like myself ignore the topics that are less obvious, but I found it very interesting to hear about a fresh topic.