Why weren Irish American Immigrants initially considered “white”?
They were considered White, but ”fringe whites” in that although they still enjoyed freedoms that Blacks and Natives were denied, at the same time they were widely discriminated against by the White American population and were only offered the most demeaning labour. A great deal of this sentiment stems from the history between England and Ireland. Most White Americans at the time of the Irish emigration were of Protestant, English, Scottish, German or Ulster stock, whereas the Irish were largely poor Catholics. The Irish had always been discriminated against in Europe, and these sentiments were extended and perpetuated in the New World.
