Causes of Americans Prejudice and Intolerance towards the Irish

Causes of Americans Prejudice and Intolerance towards the Irish
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Causes of Americans Prejudice and Intolerance towards the Irish
The book “A Renegade History of the United States” by Thaddeus Russell seeks to provide readers with a provocative perspective about America's history. The author explains that current America cannot be attributed to elites and intellectuals' ideals as the nation's history was significantly shaped by despised groups such as slaves, immigrants, so-called gangs, and those who were willing to challenge the conventions of their eras. Russell seeks to illustrate that America was shaped by the conflicts between people driven by self-interests and those who sought to achieve social order. Chapter six, titled "From White chimps to Yankee Doodles: The Irish," focuses on the massive intolerance of Irish immigrants from the Americas. Notably, the intolerance against the Irish by the Americans was caused by several factors which were somewhat justified.
The American people considered the Irish people to be wicked even before they landed in their country. Among most people, the Irish were considered to be filthy and barbaric people who were characterized by vices such: living like animals, practicing incest, cruel, thieves, and non-progressive. In this sense, the Americans had learnt to judge the Irish based on the negative perspective, which had been driven mostly by English writers. Some writers went to the extent of terming Irish as being “human chimpanzees in white skins.” The Americans still viewed the Irish as the inferior and ‘incomplete’ people who were despised by...