How We Became White People (CNN BS BARF ALERT)

Communist News Network (CNN) ^ | Christian Lander

[I Hate Obama]

(CNN) -- I am white. I know that's a terribly big surprise, considering that I write a blog called Stuff White People Like, but I mean it, I'm white. Like really white. I'm not attempting to assert some sort of superiority through my whiteness; quite the opposite actually. Thanks to my liberal upbringing, I am imbued with the appropriate amount of guilt and shame about my ancestors and their actions in the New World.

[Cronos]

The article has some correct points:

But not everyone who checked that box on the census has always been considered white. Irish, Italian, Jewish, German and Eastern European have all been considered not white. or at the very least "not American."

All of these groups came to America amid widespread discrimination, and yet through the process of assimilation and Americanization, the status of white was slowly conferred upon them (read "The History of White People" or "How the Irish Became White" for actual, intelligent research on how this happened).

I read it as him arguing against this color label. I agree. The census should be simple: by ethnic background with an option for American. So if a family identifies itself as German-American, it can tick that or another says it is African-American or another says that it is Brazilian-American. The majority can say they are American. Thanks to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we should never consider a person due to their race. Affirmative action worked and was needed in the 70s and 80s, but not any more. A Black person like Thomas Sowell or an Indian-origin person like Bobby Jindal are no longer African-American or Indian-American, they say they are American, no sub-divisions. And that's the Republican way which is the American way.

[Cronos]

“The original native Irish Celts were darker skinned and predominantly dark haired before the Viking invasion” —> good point, the Welsh are dark.

[Cronos]

well, it made sense to treat them positively in the 60s and 70s —> don’t forget that they were treated pretty badly before that, discriminated at an institutional level. However, that generation has gone and the time for discrimination, even positive disc. is over.

[Little Bill]

My Mother is Black Irish. She had, when she was a kid, very dark brown eyes, blackish hair with some red, and olive skin. Odd blood type for a Celt, AB. Going to do a DNA when I get her up here.

[dsc]

“Affirmative action worked and was needed in the 70s and 80s”

Road apples.

[Last Dakotan]

We all have to be comfortable in our own skin. I salute you on finding that place on your own.

[Cronos]

Wrong again. All categories mentioned are "caucasian."

That is NOW. Until the late 1800s, the English and by extension Americans of that time did not consider Irish to be "white". In the early 1800s, that fate befell Germans, while in the 1900s, the Eastern Europeans and Italians were looked at askance.

Jews, technically, are not caucasians, they are Semites, just like Arabs or Egyptians or Berbers or Syrians.

[nolongerademocrat]

Hmmm that’s one stereotype about the Irish that is totally correct - they are truly great poets.

[GVnana]

I did my senior thesis in history using the 1850 Federal Census. (The first census conducted after the Irish potato famine, BTW.)

This link shows a sample enumeration page. http://c.ancestry.com/pdf/trees/charts/1850.pdf?cj=1&o_xid=0002489095&o_lid=0002489095

There is no "ethnic identity," there is no "racial identity." You got the choice of White, Black, or Mulatto. Which one do you think the Irish would have chosen?

Perhaps you confuse the bias against "non WASPs" with an idea that Irish were not considered "White"?

By the 1870 census the categories were: White, Black, Mulatto, Chinese, Indian. Same in 1880.

These early usages conform with the scientific thinking of the time that the three great races were Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid.

Hope this helps.

[nolongerademocrat]

Someone on the board was talking earlier about a television show with Spike Lee doing research on his family history. I went and watched it online. Of course slavery came up - that is a part of his family history. But, there are times when I want to ask people - Don’t you realize that this is the first time in history that so many people are free? Don’t you realize that around the world there are more people in slavery right now than ever before? Amazing, that inability to see beyond one’s own circumstances. Eric Holder said that we are a nation of cowards because we do not want to face talking about race. I don’t think he realizes what he would hear if people talked openly about how they really feel.

This has been a society of punishment for many years now. I personally believe that it is as wrong to punish an innocent person for something that they did not do as it is to allow a guilty person to go free. There is no righteousness in their continued hatred of Whites. I refuse to accept punishment or guilt for something I did not do.

My husband asks me sometimes if I hate Germans for what happened during the Holocaust. I lived in Germany for four and a half years. I do not hate them. The majority of their population is totally innocent of what happened during the Holocaust. I asked my husband, how can you hate an entire people? He is unable to forgive because of what his father endured during the war, and for the family that the Nazis murdered. I tell him that I am not afraid of the word Aryan, I am not afraid of the word Nazi, I am not afraid of the swastika and I am not afraid of Germans. I do not hate them. I look at things that are happening in our society now and I see how easily a government can get out of control. The Nazis got rid of the people who cried out against their actions - if we are not careful these communists will do the same to us.

We have to stop them at all costs. They will use whatever weapons they think will be effective against the people who disagree with their philosophy of government. Agitating racial divisions is one of those weapons. White guilt is what allows the weapon to be effective. As soon as the guilt goes away, the weapon loses its power.

[GVnana]

I watched the Spike Lee program. It was both sad and poignant. He struggles with the stereotypes he's lived with all his life, (and handsomely profited from) while confronted with a history of achievement and entrepreneurship greater than he ever anticipated.

He wonders if an ancestor, who worked as a skilled slave in a munitions factory in Georgia, was "conflicted" without realizing that his ancestor may or may not have had any political thoughts other than keeping Sherman from destroying the land.

I hope, one day, the remarkable achievements and stories of these people will be celebrated with more honesty.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

This guy satirizes the whole ‘white liberal’ shtick. It’s his calling card.

With that in mind, this article made me chuckle. But he’s done better on his own site.

[TypeZoNegative]

Somebody should put a sign on his back that says “kick me”.

[TypeZoNegative]

So, you visited the same tanning booth I did, huh?

[Constitutional Patriot]

“...everything in this country is becoming about race.”

This is how the statist devides and conquers. In the US we saw this go into overdrive w/ the left’s “hyphenating” of Americans.

By making everything about race, the statist devides us and creates resentment.

[rdb3]

So, you visited the same tanning booth I did, huh?

I believe so.

[Cronos]

I'm not talking about census data --> Irish were discriminated against in England and in early 1800s America. There was talk about them not being white and even whether they were civilised or not. The anti-Germanic feeling was not as pronounced and was mostly in the pre-Independence era of the US.

however, if you do see pictures of English papers from the 1800s which consider Irish as something close to sub-human (with grotesque distortions of their features) --> you referred to census and the other poster and I referred to prejudices --> you were correct on your point and IMHO, so were we on OUR point :)