Takaki Chapter 6

Chapter 6 starts out talking about hoe the Irish did not want to leave Ireland but were pretty much forced to go to America and felt it was a necessity for their lives. It talks about how much they didn’t want to leave their country and would of done pretty much anything to not have to. They complained over and over again of being pushed out of their country by strangers from England. By 1700, the Irish only owned 14 % of Ireland. English colonizers were also forcing the Irish to become Christian. The Church of England became Protestant while most of the Irish were Catholic. The Irish attempted the “ethnic strategy” of settling in cities, educating children so they wouldn’t follow in their parents footsteps, assimilated to white culture, learned English, became unionized, possessed suffrage, and worked toward citizenship. The Irish were forced to do the more dangerous work. Those who did domestic work were paid more, had more steady and stable jobs, and stayed with the same family for long periods of time. During British colonization Ireland was poverty-stricken, the rich people took over, there was less work for the Irish, and their substance agriculture moved to a commercial agriculture. Blacks were considered more valuable then Irish. If a black was killed it was viewed as a significant loss. The Irish were given the worst of the worst jobs.

Eventually the Irish were able to assimilate to all aspects of the “white culture”. Would it have been the same if they weren’t fair skinned. Blacks still face discrimination today and hear racist comments but very rarely do you ever hear negativity toward Irish or those of Irish decent. We as Americans have even taken it as far as adopting the Irish holiday of St. Patrick’s Day. Why in a country where we brag about everything being based on equality and equal opportunity still passing judgment on skin color? So I guess my question is would we still be discriminating against Irish today if they had some outward marking that labeled them as Irish such as the blacks have their skin color that is what people first notice of them and make assumptions? The Irish came here to make a new life for themselves and work hard which helped in their success but didn’t most African American’s do the same? Yet they still are not treated completely equal. There is something wrong with that picture it seems to me.