Poor gingers

At the time a free black man might generally get about half the pay of an Irishman for the same job. As slavery seemed on the way out, and was finally abolished- these white workers were afraid they would lose their jobs to an influx of cheap labor from freed slaves. It’s telling that the black community at late would often work the same grueling dangerous jobs for half the pay, and were offered half as much because even as bad as many immigrants had it they still had things better and had more opportunity than the average free black person at the time.

While the Irish and other immigrants were often dissuaded or blocked from voting by various schemes- any citizens had at least the right to vote- a right blacks didn’t yet have even as free Americans. Any immigrant who became a citizen could be drafted- but black men were not drafted and for a time were generally not allowed to serve. This would later change- but it shows you that they were not seen as American or often even human whereas at least the other immigrants were seen as people of not unwelcome ones.

It’s particularly amazing when you look at the population and average quality of life for the day and see the cries of “naturalists” who were against immigration on the grounds that America had too many people. With today’s population that idea seems laughable as there are still plenty of places barely populated at all in the country- and we’ve seen the overall average quality of life and lifespan improve steadily as our population has gone up and we have welcomed more diversity to the country.

We see these sentiments echoed time and time again- and looking at the periods of recent history where we restricted the influx to near record lows- we see the stage being set for the economic collapses and social unrest we now know these periods were setting the stage for. Yet to listen to some you could almost be standing at a New York dock in the 1800’s with how little that rhetoric has changed.

As for “taking jobs...” in a way perhaps. But as covered before- about a decade ago 90%+ of all starting roles in television were “white” actors and or characters. 30%+ of the population being from a group other than White that is hardly reflective of our society. It is less “taking of jobs” and more “brining realistic levels of representation” to the screen.