Irish slaves myth
False conflation of Irish indentured servitude and African chattel slavery / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Irish slaves myth is a fringe pseudohistorical narrative that conflates the penal transportation and indentured servitude of Irish people during the 17th and 18th centuries, with the hereditary chattel slavery experienced by the forebears of the African diaspora. Some white nationalists, and others who want to minimize the effects of hereditary chattel slavery on Africans and their descendants, have used this false equivalence to deny racism against African Americans[1] or claim that African Americans are too vocal in seeking justice for historical grievances.[2] It also can hide the facts around Irish involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.[3] The myth has been in circulation since at least the 1990s and has been disseminated in online memes and social media debates.[4] According to historians Jerome S. Handler and Matthew C. Reilly, "it is misleading, if not erroneous, to apply the term 'slave' to Irish and other indentured servants in early Barbados".[5] In 2016, academics and Irish historians wrote to condemn the myth.[6]