> > In my room hangs an authentic "Help
> Wanted, no Irish need apply" sign. It's not
> there because i'd never take on an Irish
> person as a roommate. It's there to remind
> me of our nation's past, so that i'll strive not to
> live that way.
>
> I've certainly heard about the prejudice against
> Irish immigrants in the past, but I've never
> understood what it stemmed from. Can
> anyone enlighten me?
>
> Gri"has some Irish roots"shny

I'm linking to a book by Thomas Sowell-it was written in 1983, but still one of my favorite books of history, and race and culture in general. It traces the history of Irish, German, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, African, and Hispanic Americans.

He talks a lot about some of the anti-immigration policies that had sprung up directed at certain groups, and discrimination in America. He makes a lot of challenging points-he says that Irish Americans of today would quite possibly react the same way to the group that immigrated over as Americans of that day did. America adjusted to the people who joined it, and the people and their culture changed as well. "No Irish need apply" is a blanket statement that doesn't describe any whole group, but there was a difference between the people who immigrated, and the people they became a part of.

MarkN