Takaki chp. 6

Once again, this chapter, going along with all his other chapters, is an informational chapter. Takaki uses chapter six to focus on the Irish immigrants, and their immigration to the Americas. While doing this, Takaki talks about the reason for their comming over and how they were treated once they were here.

To open the chapter Takaki tries to clear up the false general idea that most Irish came to America because they had to. Takaki states that this is incorrect, because it was actually a matter of want versus need. They felt the need to escape the English, and the English’s will to take over the land. The English began to force the Irish into poverty, thus creating a strong will to escape to a place with more opportunities (America). Takaki gives a crude figure on PG 143, that about 1,000,000 Irish died because of them being forced into poverty and making them starve and become easily exposed to disease. On top of the English taking their land, they also had to deal with a famine where their key crop (potatoes) was ruined. The Irish were able to be more successful Americas, one reason being that there were many job opportunities here. Railways were in need of workers and many other ways of transportation were in need of improvement. Even though the opportunities were plentiful, the treatment wasn’t what they had expected. They were treated poorly and were seen only by their stereotype. This being that they were lazy, drunk bums who were no better than blacks. Even though many saw them as equal to blacks, they became racist against the blacks as well. Takaki finishes up the chapter by telling us about the women and their work in America. Most women became maids or housekeepers, and did the best they could to get their children educated so that they would never have to go through what they had. The Irish were treated badly when they immigrated over here by the English, but yet were more quickly able to blend into the American society because they were a white group of people who were brought up Christian. The American society saw this as acceptable and what was wanted to help the country grow. Takaki explained all of this and was able to once again emphasize the privilege of being part of a white, Christian group.

Is there any remaining evidence of this treatment of the Irish still today? I don’t believe that there is really much evidence of this in today’s society. The only evidence that I am aware of is the stereotypes that were given to them. Irish are still seen by some as lazy drunks who would rather be out drinking than working to help their families. Many Irish men were seen as selfish, and were said to spend their little money they earned on “booze”. Just as in many other cases, the stereotype of a group of people has tended to stick throughout our society.

I have to admit that what I read was kind of an already known thing. I’m not sure if anyone is familiar with the book “Angela’s Ashes”, but it is an amazing book that I read in high school about an Irish family. Much of what Takaki talked about was described in this book, and was previously learned information. I personally wish that people could start looking past stereotypes and learn about the person as an individual. People aren’t all the same, so lets make an effort to "see the problem, and talk about what we can do to fix it"(Johnson).