Chapter 6 Of Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror

In Chapter 6 of “A Different Mirror” by Ronald Takaki, I read about the Irish and their history but most importantly there struggle with racism despite their white skin color. From the very start of the chapter, I read about their struggle and horrible conditions that they faced due to a combination of the potato famine and being colonized by the British. As for the Irish many of them initially did not want to come to the America but it was as if they were forced to leave by Britain. Little did they know that upon their arrival when they reached the Americas they would go through the same struggles as the African Americans. Irish were labeled as “White niggers” which very much supports the reason that racism is indeed not colorblind.
The Irish exodus was caused by a long past history of oppression by Britain. This oppression included Irish land being confiscated, converting
They mostly took up jobs which were once dominated by black labors in the domestic service field.The Irish eventually came to dominate jobs within domestic services. This reminds me of the current saying by many individuals that “undocumented are taking the jobs of Americans”. Is it really the undocumented taking Americans jobs or is it due to the fact that they're doing jobs most Americans are not willing to do?

In conclusion, this was a chapter I really had to critically think about the structure of racism. We can see another form of oppression towards another race rather than mainly being implemented toward Afro-Americans. All in all this chapter made me really question the source of racism in America leading me to ask” What would have happened if the Irish had a distinct feature to identify them? Would they practice white culture as strong as they