How The Irish Became White Summary

In this book, by Noel Ignativ, the author discusses “How the Irish became white”. The book was published first published in 1995, and then reprinted in 2009. There are 272 pages in this book. This book is about how the Irish became “white” by oppressing blacks, who were seen as the inferior race, in order to become a part of the superior race, or “whites”. Being white is considered a privilege, and in order to be apart of that the Irish had to conform. The author researches what it took for the Irish to become privileged as a member of the white race. This book is more of a historical rendition of events that occurred, the only research that was conducted was historical in nature. The author uses historical documents in order to prove the sequence …show more content…
Riots continued in Philadelphia, one of the major riots was in 1844. This riot was the involving two fire companies. The basis for this riot was 2 whites being attacked by blacks. This chapter reminds me of the movie “Gangs of New York.” So many riots and gang fights were breaking out against each other. This was a result of years of tension and conflict finally coming to the surface. The riots reached a peak when a mob led by The Killers attacked a four-story building which was the home of the California House, a popular tavern in the area. The reason for the attack was that it was owned by a black man who had recently married a white women. The result of this was the destruction of a fire engine, the destruction of the California House, and death of three whites, and one black was killed; nine whites and 16 blacks were hospitalized, many more were injured. This was deemed the bloodiest the city had experienced so far. The city council established a new police district after this riot, in order to try and alleviate some of the issues of not having enough police to cover the districts in Philadelphia. The only way the Police would be able to control this riots would be to minimize the issues between the nativists, and the Irish Americans. I do find it confusing where later in the chapter when it discusses the Civil War, Noel states the south was trying to take slavery out of the Union and the North was trying to keep it in. this seems contradictory to what we are taught in history