Dear Log,
«This story of the Irish is a powerful one. Noel Ignatiev writes [in How the Irish Became White] that "no one gave a damn for the poor Irish. Even the downtrodden black people had Quakers and abolitionists to bring their plight to public attention (as well as the ability to tell their own stories effectively), but there is no Irish-American counterpart of the various Philadelphia studies on the condition of free colored people." Ignatiev goes on to offer a possible explanation, "perhaps it reflects a perception that the striving of the Negro for full freedom carried within itself a vision of a new world for everyone, while the assimilation of the Irish into white America meant merely more of the same."»For more yuks, see the various herd-reviews of How the Irish Became White - or, for that matter, of any book about and for races in America. It's all like some horrible Onion headline: "Area man may or may not be eager to 'celebrate' your dumb ethnic heritage."--"Toward an American Revolutionary Praxis"
