Noel Ignatiev, scholar who called for abolishing whiteness, dies at 78

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. I believe I've read that after the Civil War, landlords in DC preferred to rent to former slaves

than to the Irish, which, if true, tells you a lot about how the Irish were perceived back then.

And it's astonishing to me that, given how much of racial identity in this country is connected to skin color, that the Irish were ever thought of as less than white. Which probably says a lot about prejudice in general.

And just to clarify things, all four of my grandparents came from Ireland. They came well after the Famine and well after the Civil War. Perhaps they experienced anti-Irish prejudice, but they certainly never talked about it.

I have fond memories of talking to them and struggling to understand their accents.