{"id":72,"date":"2020-02-04T00:11:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T04:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/?p=72"},"modified":"2020-02-24T19:24:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T23:24:24","slug":"the-irish-as-almost-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/2020\/02\/04\/the-irish-as-almost-white\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irish as “Almost White”"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reading Lloyd\u2019s piece, the similarities between the treatment of the Irish and Africans and African Americans by the English during the period of colonialism become much more clear. The arguments for Irish colonization used in many of the citations in Lloyd\u2019s writing reflect staple claims of the British civilizing mission, the argument for colonization based on the \u201cimprovement\u201d of \u201cless evolved\u201d societies through English teaching. The attitudes of the British writers cited by Lloyd are almost exactly the same to those promoting the African civilizing mission, which shows that the English viewed the black world and the Irish world as two very similar entities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The language used to describe the Irish by the English is similarly racist to the language used to describe blacks and makes very similar arguments to those describing the colonization of the African continent. Lloyd\u2019s citation of Thomas Carlyle reads, \u201cThe time has come when the Irish population must either be improved a little, or else exterminated\u2026 In a state of perennial ultra-savage famine, in the midst of civilization, they cannot continue,\u201d (9). This statement is a disturbing, yet accurate depiction of what the civilizing mission philosophy entails; one either conforms to the English way of life or must be eliminated by that way of life. Civilizations that are not in line with English ideas of modernity are all viewed as inferior under this philosophy, and the African and Irish civilizations are viewed as similar under this philosophy due to their similar apparent lack of modernity. Another quote from Carlyle says, \u201cCrowds of miserable Irish darken all our towns\u2026 In his rags and laughing savagery, he is there to undertake all the work that can be done by mere strength of hand and back,\u201d (9). Carlyle describes the Irish as savages in a manner similar to the racist descriptions of black individuals. But he also says the Irish will physically \u201cdarken\u201d the towns of the British, implying that the Irish are viewed as \u201cblack\u201d individuals. Carlyle goes on further to describe the Irish as \u201cwhite negroes\u201d and claims that the emancipation of the West Indies would turn the nation into a \u201c<\/span>Black Ireland, <\/span><\/i>\u2018free\u2019 indeed, but an Ireland, and Black!\u201d (10). This racist dialogue implies that the English believed there was an inherent similarity between blacks and the Irish due to the two groups\u2019 lack of modernity, and it is this very lack of modernity that caused the English to see these two peoples as a plague to cultured society. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading Lloyd\u2019s piece, the similarities between the treatment of the Irish and Africans and African Americans by the English during the period of colonialism become much more clear. The arguments for Irish colonization used in many of the citations in Lloyd\u2019s writing reflect staple claims of the British civilizing mission, the argument for colonization … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Irish as “Almost White””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}