The Power of Context in Race Relations
In Noel Ignatiev’s book ‘How the Irish Became White’ (1995) he depicts the story of the Irish Catholic emigration to both the United States and England in the 19th century, with a keen focus on the population’s struggle to establish themselves in American society before their eventual class ascension. It is well documented that the Irish were met with anti-Irish riots in their attempt to settle in both the UK and America, however, the Irish oppression in The States did not survive in comparison to the terror the population experienced in the UK — in fact, the Irish rallied against the abolition of their once working class African American brethren. How could it come to be that the lives of the Irish in the UK and the Irish in America would become such juxtapositions?
The Great Famine
Between 1845 and 1849 Ireland experienced what came to be known as The Great Famine, which led to a permanent change in the country’s demographic, political and cultural landscape. Ireland and much of Europe experienced ‘Potato Blight’ caused by wind, rain and insects. The potato was Ireland’s most important crop, so much so that the average Irish man ate 14lbs of the staple food per day and consisted of up to 50% of the rural poor’s diet. Therefore, it is needless to say when the harvest fell by half in 1845 due to the adverse weather conditions on the Irish Lumper harvest— tragedy ensued.
In parallel, 19th century Great Britain had the richest global empire at this time and enforced their oppressive rule over the economics of Ireland. The then Prime Minister Sir Robert Peele, had corn (maize) exported from Ireland even during the famine — extracting what little the Irish had left as nourishment. Furthermore, under Penal Law both English and Anglo-Irish families owned most of the land, and most Irish Catholics were relegated to work as tenant farmers forced to pay rent to the landowners. Due to low harvests, once Irish Papists failed to pay rent they were evicted and often had their houses burned so they wouldn’t return. The Irish state descended into chaos, streets were littered with dead bodies due to starvation, crime rose as individuals went in search of food and some even hoped for imprisonment or extradition to penal colonies like Australia where they could be guaranteed meals. By the famine’s end, some 20–25% of the population either died or had fled the destitute conditions of 19th century Ireland.
“No blacks, no Irish, no dogs”
By 1861, 600,000 people, or 3 per cent of the English population, had been born in Ireland. These people represent those who had immigrated to England fleeing the poverty and the Great Famine, many of which settled in Liverpool and Glasgow, in indescribable filth. Meanwhile, another set of Irish refugees settled in North America — mainly on the east coast cities of: Boston, New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Despite the varying destinations, both sets of Irish refugees faced the same oppressive regimes from the locals and the government that was being experienced by African-Americans and Black-Brits.
The Irish and Africans Americans had lots of contact during this period; they lived side by side and shared work spaces. In the early years of immigration the poor Irish and blacks were thrown together, the same class competing for the same jobs. In the census of 1850, the term mulatto appears for the first time due primarily to inter-marriage between Irish and African Americans. Over in the UK, much-like the racial oppression that black people endured, The Irish were also subjected to such. Liverpudlians feared that the Irish immigrants, “…would take jobs which should have been given to local English people and that they would exercise significant political control over the city by voting in Irish representatives.” For Irish women, work was even harder to find. Many locals were reluctant to employ Irish women as domestic servants, often advertising for roles with the caveat ‘No Irish Need Apply’.
However, what’s most interesting about the fates of the Irish is that those who flocked to America ascended much faster in the rank of class than those who settled in the UK. An article by a black writer in an 1860 edition of the Liberator explained how the Irish ultimately attained their objectives: “Fifteen or twenty years ago, a Catholic priest in Philadelphia said to the Irish people in that city, ‘You are all poor, and chiefly labourers, the blacks are poor labourers; many of the native whites are labourers; now, if you wish to succeed, you must do everything that they do, no matter how degrading, and do it for less than they can afford to do it for.’ Once the Irish secured themselves in those jobs, they ensured that blacks were kept out. Later, as Irish became prominent in the labor movement, African Americans were excluded from participation. In fact, they went so far as to fight against the abolition plans of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican party to uphold laws such as the 13th amendment. Are these events simply a matter of survival of the greediest? I believe Malcolm Gladwell may have a compelling concept to lead us to somewhat of an answer.
Power of context
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is a book about how small actions at the right time, in the right place, and with the right people can cause anything from a product to an idea to a trend to spread like an epidemic. According to Gladwell, there are three variables that determine whether and when the tipping point for a product, idea, or phenomenon will be achieved:
- The Law of the Few — the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts;
- The Stickiness Factor — a unique quality that causes the phenomenon to “stick” in the minds of the public and influence their behaviour and,
- The Power of Context — refers to the environment or historical moment in which the trend is introduced. If the context is not right, it is not likely that the tipping point will take place.
The difference between the experience of the Irish in the UK and America came down to one thing: Context. The poignancy of race in America was far more directed towards African Americans than in the UK, where Irish and blacks were equally rejected. In the space of a decade or so, the Irish refugees in America had come to realise that as long as they continued to work alongside blacks, they would be considered no different. Bruce Nelson said that to: “Ask Irish immigrants to ‘treat the colored people as your equals, as brethren’ was to ask them to go directly against the American white supremacist racial grain, to link them even more closely with a despised and powerless race, to condemn them to the margins of the society they had chosen as their home.” Therefore, the Irish identified that by adopting the social behaviour of racial oppression over African Americans they could purchase their own ticket to equality.
History repeats itself
Boiling this down to The Power of Context isn’t a finite conclusion, after all, society is made up of individual lives — however, what I feel that this piece does do is express the sheer capability that a widely practiced social behaviour can have on a people. As former President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 1960s to a young Bill Moyers: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” This year at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, we have seen statues of the culture that society was once hinged upon be torn down. Whilst it is symbolic for the divorce with the former global culture towards the attitudes of race, for me it’s also a warning to stress-test my own group think.
Oh and before I forget, Black Lives Matter.
