It isn’t any kind of myth. My grandfather was born in 1901 and he remembered when he started to be approached by banks for business loans. It was in the late thirties. He was smart enough to know that he only started being treated white by some and only some as a result of the increased population of black folk around here. Up until then he was regularly called and treated like he was black. It didn’t prevent him from hating black folks though. After all he may have been poor and his kids may have had trouble with hunger but at least he wasn’t a n*****r. A quote by more than one of his generation by the way. We are talking about the deep south. I remember the rude old money biddy next door to us when I was growing up called me a tater tot until her dying day. In case you don’t know tater tot is a racist thing to call someone. So tell yourself its a myth but don’t expect anyone with family that remembers their treatment to agree.
With or without the word, it was the same mentality elsewhere, too. Many Irish diasporas align with Italians. They clashed with each other because they arrived at the same time at the same place. They put each other down to try to climb up.
Then as they clowly rose neck and neck, dispersing into better neighborhoods, they freed space for the next bottom rung to move in. So naturally, the bitter rivals became best friends and, together, shit on the next diaspora.
It isn’t any kind of myth. My grandfather was born in 1901 and he remembered when he started to be approached by banks for business loans. It was in the late thirties. He was smart enough to know that he only started being treated white by some and only some as a result of the increased population of black folk around here. Up until then he was regularly called and treated like he was black. It didn’t prevent him from hating black folks though. After all he may have been poor and his kids may have had trouble with hunger but at least he wasn’t a n*****r. A quote by more than one of his generation by the way. We are talking about the deep south. I remember the rude old money biddy next door to us when I was growing up called me a tater tot until her dying day. In case you don’t know tater tot is a racist thing to call someone. So tell yourself its a myth but don’t expect anyone with family that remembers their treatment to agree.
With or without the word, it was the same mentality elsewhere, too. Many Irish diasporas align with Italians. They clashed with each other because they arrived at the same time at the same place. They put each other down to try to climb up.
Then as they clowly rose neck and neck, dispersing into better neighborhoods, they freed space for the next bottom rung to move in. So naturally, the bitter rivals became best friends and, together, shit on the next diaspora.
The cycle repeats.