Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
> >
> >But I thought "racism" meant "ideology of white
> >supremacy"? :) I doubt English claims of superiority
> >over the Irish ever incorporated skin color.
>
> The concept is malleable enough to incorporate the Irish as "negroes
> turned inside out" and to play on that with blacks as "smoked Irish."
This happened in the 19th c. Many historians have pointed out that in the British treatment of Ireland & the Irish from Elizabeth on had all the features of the racism towards non-europeans that developed with the rise of slavery. (Note: Racism did NOT cause slavery; slavery caused racism.) Full fledged modern racism did not develop until the Declaration of Independence (All men are created dequal) generate impossible contradictions, resolved by racist ideology.
Carrol