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Irish were Latinos of their day
The Denver Post ^ | 4/01/2006 | Bob Ewegen

Posted on 04/04/2006 5:34:55 PM PDT by neverdem

Today's rancorous debate over immigration has a parallel in the nativist reaction to the mass Irish immigration in the mid-19th century.

Spurred by the potato famine that began in 1845, 3.5 million mostly destitute Irish migrated to America by 1880 - about 7 percent of the population of 50 million. By contrast, today's 11 million unauthorized immigrants, of all nationalities, constitute just 4 percent of our population.

Contemporary immigration foes, like former Gov. Dick Lamm and Rep. Tom Tancredo, claim America can't absorb so many foreign-born without fatal damage to our economy and culture.

Yet, history shows we did just that. Today, there are 43 million Americans of Irish ancestry, a key element of the vibrant alloy that is America.

Today's nativists argue we can't compare today's illegal immigrants to the Irish, because the Irish came here legally. That's technically true, but the 19th century wave was just as uncontrolled, because America had virtually no bars to immigration in those days.

Kenneth Ackerman's book, "Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York," details how the desperate Irish were welcomed at the docks by the political machine that provided the only social safety net in that era.

Tweed minions would help the newcomers find housing and work and, if there was an election in the offing, they would swiftly be naturalized as citizens in mass ceremonies by Tweed's judges, so they could vote for their benefactors.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast, who hated Irish and Catholics with equal fervor, pandered to the nativist bigotry by depicting Irishmen as drunken, subhuman brutes. The accompanying Nast cartoon depicts the role immigrants played in supporting Tweed by showing an Irish thug and a Catholic priest carving up the Democratic Party goose that laid the golden eggs.

But though the Irish were despised, they were still admitted through America's golden door. That's because Americans needed them to do our dirty work.

The first generations of Irish worked largely at unskilled and semiskilled occupations, but their children found themselves working at increasingly skilled trades. By 1900, when Irish Americans made up about 8 percent of the male labor force, they were almost a third of the plumbers, steamfitters and boilermakers. Their places at the bottom of the ladder were taken by newly arrived laborers from southern and eastern Europe.

Today, those dirty, low-paying, jobs are being taken by Latinos. But if history is any guide, the daughter of that Latina who scrubs your floor today may be the doctor who delivers my granddaughter's baby a generation hence.

To some, that is a frightening prospect. But I think Clio, the muse of history, would join with Lady Liberty herself to say:

Bienvenidos, Americanos nuevos.

Bob Ewegen is The Denver Post's deputy editorial page editor.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Colorado; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: illegalimmigration; immigrantlist; immigration; irish; irishamericans; latinos
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To: alarm rider

I'll agree with you that Central and Southern Americans are not part of a distinct race.

As for the three races, I've got Indo-European/Caucasian, African and Asian/Pacific Islander. What about the indigenous peoples of the Americas or Australia?


121 posted on 04/04/2006 6:33:11 PM PDT by stormlead
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To: John Filson

Agreed.


122 posted on 04/04/2006 6:33:51 PM PDT by stormlead
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To: hispanarepublicana

"Human nature" would also have us copulating on street corners, defecating in the streets, and murdering our enemies with our bare hands.


So, you've been to NYC?


123 posted on 04/04/2006 6:34:03 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: stormlead; alarm rider

I've always read that the Aborigines were a category to themselves.


124 posted on 04/04/2006 6:34:12 PM PDT by cyborg (I just love that man.)
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To: neverdem

The Irish were not made instant recipients of US taxpayer dollars in the form of welfare, food stamps, resident college tuition, etc., etc. etc., ad infinitum. That's the big difference.


125 posted on 04/04/2006 6:35:01 PM PDT by XR7
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To: trubluolyguy
As I recall, the Irish were starving to death and the American people welcomed them with open arms. Neither of which can be said for the South Americans sneaking over our border in the dead of night.

They only thing you got right was the sneaking over the border

Other then that .. the Irish and the Italians were treated like crap ... could be because they were both catholics

126 posted on 04/04/2006 6:36:34 PM PDT by Mo1 ("Stupidity is also a gift from God, but it should not be abused." Pope John Paul II)
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To: Mo1

Eastern European Jews were treated like crap, too. Every immigrant group gets treated like crap.


127 posted on 04/04/2006 6:38:03 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

that's true


128 posted on 04/04/2006 6:38:37 PM PDT by Mo1 ("Stupidity is also a gift from God, but it should not be abused." Pope John Paul II)
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To: sinkspur

500,000 manage to get together in one place at one time. That is pretty impressive.


129 posted on 04/04/2006 6:39:31 PM PDT by arthurus (Better to fight them OVER THERE than here.)
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To: HungarianGypsy
The Irish came through Ellis Island and weren't sneaking over the border to get in.

The Irish were coming over waaaay before there was an Ellis Island. Bless em.

130 posted on 04/04/2006 6:41:52 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (In the Land of the Blind the one-eyed man is king.)
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To: Mo1

Immigrant groups get treated like crap for a couple generations. They form crime syndicates, get into sports and entertainment. Eventually,they get into business, send their kids to college, the grand kids kids move out to Long Island and complain about the next immigrant group coming in, which they treat like crap.


131 posted on 04/04/2006 6:42:07 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: neverdem
Kenneth Ackerman's book, "Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York," details how the desperate Irish were welcomed at the docks by the political machine that provided the only social safety net in that era.

Tweed minions would help the newcomers find housing and work and, if there was an election in the offing, they would swiftly be naturalized as citizens in mass ceremonies by Tweed's judges, so they could vote for their benefactors.

He does have this part correct. Corrupt Democrat Party politicians used and abused immigrants 150 years ago and they still do it today. In that respect, nothing has changed.

He doesn't mention the part where Tweed's Tammany Hall under the Wood brothers, incited the so-called New York Draft Riots during the Civil War and drove poor Irish immigrants to vicious race rioting, beating, murdering and hanging any blacks they found on the streets because they were told that the "Black Republicans" and "Black Lincoln" were freeing the slaves to take jobs away from the Irish.

Nothing has changed in that regard either. The Democrat party has been dealing the race card from both sides of the deck for a 150 years.

132 posted on 04/04/2006 6:42:22 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: trubluolyguy

In addition, when it became apparent that immigrants were displacing low-income Americans from their jobs, tough measures were taken to restrict legal immigration. Oddly enough, when a potential slave labor force wasn't available for exploitation, wages rose for native-born low-income workers. Funny how that works out.


133 posted on 04/04/2006 6:42:30 PM PDT by MarcusTulliusCicero
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To: durasell

LOL! You said it right.


134 posted on 04/04/2006 6:43:02 PM PDT by cyborg (I just love that man.)
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To: durasell
Eastern European Jews were treated like crap, too. Every immigrant group gets treated like crap.

Yup.

And it's absolutely true that the worst Americans I've known have been home-grown.

135 posted on 04/04/2006 6:44:16 PM PDT by Tribune7
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To: cyborg

I'm still sitting around waiting for my turn to treat someone like crap...one day. We all have dreams.


136 posted on 04/04/2006 6:44:58 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: Tribune7

And it's absolutely true that the worst Americans I've known have been home-grown.



I've found it to be a mixed bag. All groups have idiots and good people. Unfortunately, I'm an idiot magnet.


137 posted on 04/04/2006 6:48:35 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: dljordan
The South had Irish regiments too. My own people were Scots-Irish and fought in the 1st and 10th Tennessee.

Scots-Irish (Orange) is just another way of saying "not Catholic". The discrimination faced by the "Green Irish" had nothing to do with Ireland and everything to do with Religion.

BTW. My mother (the daughter of a Green Irish immigrant) married my father (the son of an Orange Irish immigrant). Naturally, I fight with myself a lot --- and enjoy it. ;~))

138 posted on 04/04/2006 6:49:28 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: stormlead
Indo-European is not a race, it is a basis of language.

Indo-European languages are generally recognized as Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.

Again, you have been politicized and not educated, and maybe that is the fault of what passes as education lately. Considering your statement; "As for the three races, I've got Indo-European/Caucasian, African and Asian/Pacific Islander." Where in that would you place say, Chinese or Japanese? Does the term "Oriental" mean anything to you

Fine then. Here are two; Oriental and Occidental.
139 posted on 04/04/2006 6:50:22 PM PDT by alarm rider (Irritating leftists as often as is humanly possible....)
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To: durasell

Ya got a point there

Though my mother always taught us kids to treat others as we would want others to treat us

And if we didn't .. she'd smack us upside our heads


140 posted on 04/04/2006 6:50:57 PM PDT by Mo1 ("Stupidity is also a gift from God, but it should not be abused." Pope John Paul II)
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