By Michael McLean (History major, Class of 2014)

Today’s history lecture titled “How the Irish Became ‘Black’: Irish Identity in the 19th Century” provided an in-depth look at Irish identity and race relations. After giving a brief historical context on Ireland (the potato famine, mass emigration, British imperialism, etc.). Historian Bruce Nelson of Dartmouth College provided a number of images and anecdotes which displayed how the Irish were indeed labeled as a black, “negroid” race in the US and England, far inferior to other white Europeans. For instance, the Irish frequently appeared in political cartoons depicted as ape-like creatures, and were described as lazy savages with dark skin. The arguments for this kind of thinking are of course ridiculous, if not outright laughable. Nevertheless, Nelson highlighted a vital phenomenon in the history of racial identity. It is now scientifically accepted that there is no biological basis for race, but rather a social construction, and skin color has no affect on personal characteristics (i.e. intellect or diligence). Still, concepts of race still dominate much of our lives in the US and act as a tool to perpetuate inequality. In this way, the lecture was a crucial reminder that race is not as fixed as many of us would like to believe, and what constitutes “blackness” has changed dramatically over the course of history.

“Bruce Nelson is a Guggenheim award winner whose book, Irish Nationalism and the Making of the Irish Race, will be published by Princeton University Press this spring. In his recent research, Nelson explores the relationship between Irish nationalism and anti-colonial sentiments in the early 20th century and investigates how Black intellectuals of the early 1900s, including leaders such as Marcus Garvey and author Claude McKay, identified with the anti-colonial ideas espoused by the leaders of the Irish Diaspora. A former assembly plant worker and union activist, Nelson’s scholarly interests include labor unions and civil rights. After earning degrees in religion at Princeton University and in history at the University of California Berkeley, he published his first book, Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930 s in 1988. The book received the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize from the Organization of American Historians. Most recently, Nelson completed Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality (2001), which examines the way class and race intersected in American society during the 19th and 20th centuries. Nelson’s awards and honors include fellowships from the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the National Humanities Center. He also has received Dartmouth’s Distinguished Teaching Award (1988) and the Class of 1962 Faculty Fellowship for excellence in scholarship and teaching.”