Honestly, Jews, Italians, Eastern Europeans, and Irish people were always still considered white.
Um, no, actually. No, they weren't. My professor told us fascinating stories about how Irish orphans in the nineteenth century could not be adopted on the East Coast by non-Irish people, because they wanted "White babies," not Irish ones. So they were put on trains and sent West, out to where people would adopt them because they looked White-- until they got to New Mexico, where Mexican-American parents wanted to adopt them, and the adoption agencies were upset, because "non-White" people wanted to adopt these formerly-non-White-but-now-White babies.
I'll agree that the easiest way to distinguish race is on sight by skin color, but skin color varies. Some of the White people I know have darker skin and heavier features than the Black people I know.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-31 06:39 pm (UTC)Um, no, actually. No, they weren't. My professor told us fascinating stories about how Irish orphans in the nineteenth century could not be adopted on the East Coast by non-Irish people, because they wanted "White babies," not Irish ones. So they were put on trains and sent West, out to where people would adopt them because they looked White-- until they got to New Mexico, where Mexican-American parents wanted to adopt them, and the adoption agencies were upset, because "non-White" people wanted to adopt these formerly-non-White-but-now-White babies.
I'll agree that the easiest way to distinguish race is on sight by skin color, but skin color varies. Some of the White people I know have darker skin and heavier features than the Black people I know.