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bangdazap t1_javwfrk wrote

Reply to comment by Apprehensive-Bad-651 in Weekly History Questions Thread. by AutoModerator

It's more of a case of who was defined as "white". Benjamin Franklin once warned Americans to be vary of "swarthy" people, like the French and Swedes. Irish people weren't considered white initially and it was common for places looking for workers to display the sign "Irish need not apply". In turn, later Italian immigrants had to build their own churches because they, albeit Catholic, weren't allowed to use Irish churches.

Jews were also not considered white, and establishments that didn't allow Jews were labeled "restricted". More recently, Hispanics are more and more considered to be white in America, which they weren't previously.

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Iggy_spots t1_jawop52 wrote

My Jewish immigrant ancestors had their race listed as Hebrew on ship manifests.

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Nonskew2 t1_jaxkwyj wrote

Did he say Swedes were swarthy? Sami maybe, but not Swedes..

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bangdazap t1_jazqn53 wrote

>Which leads me to add one remark, that the number of purely white people in the world is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny; Asia chiefly tawny; America (exclusive of the new comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians, and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who, with the English, make the principal body of white people on the face of the earth.

​Benjamin Franklin, “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, People of Countries, Etc.” (1751)

Prejudice blinds you to the facts of reality I guess.

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