Charles Brown wrote:
>
> Starting about 500 years ago, the overgeneralized distinction between > whites and coloreds originated with Europeans, who referred to > themselves as whites. Before the 1960's in the U.S. the overwhelming > majority of whites of all classes used this generalization, quite > freely and casually considering themselves superior to coloreds. The > cohesiveness of the group "whites" came from this internal social , > political and economic construction of self or identity.
gee, tell that to the irish, who, along side the chinese, built the railroads in the u.s. or the poles, the italians, european jews ... all of these groups, and more, were racialied, considered of inferior races, etc.
[don't even try assuming that i'm arguing that these groups were more oppressed, or even as oppressed than "non-whitees." i'm simply challanging the notion that whites formed a cohesive group in the u.s.]