As I step into the fourth week of this class, I realized how oblivious I am to the situations around me and how uneducated I am about this country’s politics. I grew up in a home were politics were rarely discussed and basically avoided. During the first couple of class discussions concerning political history, I had to fall back on my prior knowledge, which was little to nothing. Although I come to class with very little knowledge on the subject, I am very interested in the discussion of slavery/servants and their impact on today’s movements.
After listening to Dr. Reilly’s lecture, I became interested in the topic of “Irish Slavery” and its impact on today’s society. In our discussion, Dr. Reilly explained that after the Black Lives Matter movement began, people of Irish descent spoke out about their ancestors and how they also suffered from slavery. After that comment, I was hit with a wall of confusion. Are Irish descents using their ancestor’s servitude as a tactic to say they are still oppressed? That question as stuck with me since Monday’s lecture, but the answer has a lot of grey area.
After reading a classmate’s blog post last week, the idea of “perspective” stayed with me and contributes to this grey area answer. In her blog post, she explains that as part Irish she had never heard of her ancestors being “slaves”, until Dr. Reilly’s reading. She stated that her grandparents hadn’t acknowledged or taught her about this timeline in her family’s history and that it was due to their perspective on the subject. This idea of perspective, I believe, holds true to many different movements and disagreements in the US. The Irish people today are using their “servant” ancestors to argue that they are still oppressed and this is impacted by their individual perspective and the tensions of today’s movements.
It certainly feels key to acknowledge and analyze differing perspectives. In today’s environment it is easy to simply stay in one’s own political and cultural bubble. But we as Notre Dame students recognize the importance of diversity of thought. While we may disagree with many of those differing opinions and perspectives, it is important to hear them— hear them and come to understand where they stem from. As you mention, Irish Americans may feel their ancestors’ servitude is comparable to that of African slaves, but as we learned this is simply unfounded. I think it is clear that these Irish Americans are, for the most part, simply playing the part of the victim to belittle the sufferings of slaves. So I agree with you that it is confusing how they act as if they are oppressed.
I feel that I am completely in the same mindset that you express here. I feel that the idea of perspective is so important and especially when we consider topics like the ones that Dr. Reilly brought up. I find it so interesting that you speak about how perspective has inspired individuals to reflect back on their ancestors. I think that your consideration of a ‘grey area’ is also super important and it once again contributes to this larger picture of Irish heritage but also provides us with some incredibly interesting conflict and argument regarding this topic within Irish heritage and the differences between indentured servitude and slavery.