Irish folks (like my forebears) _became_ "white," getting away from the "no dogs or Irish allowed" tradition, partly by joining the police force (and partly by forming political machines, etc.) In fact, we dominated that institution of state power, so that phrases like "paddy wagon" became common currency. However, the goals of that institution never changed, except that a bias toward the police hiring even more "sons of Erin" arose. Of course, there's the down-side: other ethnic groups (and women, even Irish women) continued to be excluded from those jobs. It helped recreate (and maybe intensify) divisions within the working class that delayed class-wide organization and more revolutionary consciousness. But the fact that people hit upon a relatively successful strategy for dealing with the ethnic hierarchy suggests to me that the phrase "paddy wagon" is pretty harmless (and easier to say than "PPTV"). Especially now that the Irish-Americans are "white."
I notice while watching TV cop shows that a lot of the cops are Blacks, especially the lieutenants ("NYPD Blue" & "Homicide"). My superficial impression is that in the real world, African-Americans are following a strategy similar to the Irish-Americans (i.e., becoming cops. forming political machines, etc.) Maybe they're becoming "white" (or, more likely, will do so in the future), though if that's true we'll have to drop this usage of the word "white." If so, it couldn't happen a minute too soon. Of course, there are other ethnic groups at the bottom who will have to climb the damned hierarchy.
Someone used the phrase "divide and conquer" to refer to race relations. IMHO, that phrase is the essence of Michael Reich's theory. As an empiricist, he doesn't go much further.
Jim Devine jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html "A society is rich when material goods, including capital, are cheap, and human beings dear." -- R.H. Tawney.