re: #397 Blind Frog Belly White

Right. The Smiths of the South Side in Pittsburgh were solidly Middle Class going back to the early 19th Century, and 3 successive generations of my male ancestors married Irish women. Their children were not considered ‘nonwhite’, because of their Irish parentage. Immigrant Irish may have been looked down on, abused, consigned to shitty, dangerous jobs, but they weren’t stuck there for generation upon generation.

And perhaps some Irish even came to America as Indentured Servants, but the LAW going back to the 17th Century established that only blacks were subject to HERITABLE slavery.

My Irish born third great grandfather actually became a pretty respected man in 19th century North side Pittsburgh. He and his son ended up being named as postmasters of the township where they lived in the Buchanan and Cleveland administrations. I mean it’s just crap to compare the two situations. I have no doubt at all that it wasn’t always easy for them as Irish Catholics in a country predominately Protestant of British and German descent but it wasn’t even close to what African-Americans have experienced.