The Japanese believed they were superior to the Koreans, and that belief conveniently justified exploitation. The situation between the British and the Irish was similar, and their exploitation and dehumanization of the Irish lasted 700 years.
People outside these areas would struggle to recognize physical characteristics identifying the…
The Japanese believed they were superior to the Koreans, and that belief conveniently justified exploitation. The situation between the British and the Irish was similar, and their exploitation and dehumanization of the Irish lasted 700 years.
People outside these areas would struggle to recognize physical characteristics identifying these groups, but people within group at least believed they could tell each other apart. The British drew caricatures of the irish as short, with their eyes close together—not dissimilar to the Nazi caricature of the Jews as having long feet and big noses.
There is nothing special about using skin color to divide people like this, and I struggle with the idea that America invented racism. Maybe you could make that case with an extremely narrow definition of racism? But even then, people around the world have factored skin color into their hatred. I am not sure I understand the goal people are trying to achieve when they make this charge. I read it in Caste as well.
"People outside these areas would struggle to recognize physical characteristics identifying these groups, but people within group at least believed they could tell each other apart. "
I still remember as a child asking why Catholics and Protestants hated each other, and learning what the difference was between their beliefs. I was probably about 7. Differences so small that most people could barely even understand them, and it wasn't even possible to tell them apart by looking, and yet God knows how people died over it.
It was a truly formative moment in my understanding of how stupid and destructive bigotry is.
This is a great point about the Catholics and the Protestants too because it reminds us that the Irish developed their own bigotry, which they also inflicted on Black people in America. It’s comfortable to see ourselves as solely victims or oppressors, but as we’ve discussed before, most of us have both in our backgrounds.
The Japanese believed they were superior to the Koreans, and that belief conveniently justified exploitation. The situation between the British and the Irish was similar, and their exploitation and dehumanization of the Irish lasted 700 years.
People outside these areas would struggle to recognize physical characteristics identifying these groups, but people within group at least believed they could tell each other apart. The British drew caricatures of the irish as short, with their eyes close together—not dissimilar to the Nazi caricature of the Jews as having long feet and big noses.
There is nothing special about using skin color to divide people like this, and I struggle with the idea that America invented racism. Maybe you could make that case with an extremely narrow definition of racism? But even then, people around the world have factored skin color into their hatred. I am not sure I understand the goal people are trying to achieve when they make this charge. I read it in Caste as well.
"People outside these areas would struggle to recognize physical characteristics identifying these groups, but people within group at least believed they could tell each other apart. "
I still remember as a child asking why Catholics and Protestants hated each other, and learning what the difference was between their beliefs. I was probably about 7. Differences so small that most people could barely even understand them, and it wasn't even possible to tell them apart by looking, and yet God knows how people died over it.
It was a truly formative moment in my understanding of how stupid and destructive bigotry is.
This is a great point about the Catholics and the Protestants too because it reminds us that the Irish developed their own bigotry, which they also inflicted on Black people in America. It’s comfortable to see ourselves as solely victims or oppressors, but as we’ve discussed before, most of us have both in our backgrounds.