History Memes

Many freedmen after the US Civil War also adopted new surnames to separate themselves from slavery, adopting common last names or last names of white folk they were exposed to during the liberation of the South - including ~150,000 Irish-Americans who served in the Union Army. Furthermore, while Irish were considered white before the US Civil War, they were also 'lower' in social status, and intermarriages between white Irish and free Black folk were more common than with the white Anglo-American majority.

This isn't to say "definitely not" for "Does a Black person with an Irish surname have a bad history behind that surname?" - there was a significant minority Irish-Americans amongst the slaver class in the US. But it's also much less certain than the meme implies.

An African-American comedian who moved to Sweden did a similar routine about his Swedish wife being naively excited when his DNA test showed him to be 4% Scandinavian.

Im sorry if im being ignorant but why is this so bad?

I have a friend (palest of white) who had a black person say my friend’s last name sounds black. Replying was a bit awkward.

During human races ideology time, Iris were seen as "white blacks" (actually "white n...") right?

Have they got white priviledges before the end of that ideology?

I’m African American and my family’s last name was an interesting one because it is very German sounding but with a twist.

That’s when I learned that the reason for this was due to my ancestors being given that name by their…”new family”…but they didn’t want to give them the actual name so they put a twist on the spelling just slightly.

Apparently that was a thing with a lot of last names given by the “new family”.

Example: Villiams is the slaver’s last name so the slave gets the last name Williams. Close enough to be recognized, but not enough to note equality.

When I was a kid, I used to watch the Mike Douglas Show (I'm old). One time, he had a guy on who supposedly discovered the family coat of arms for people. The guy brought framed coats of arms for everyone on the show, including not just Douglas but also a black vocalist (I think it might have been Shirley Bassey). I was like all of 12, but even I knew how awkward that was. I guess I'm saying it seems more people don't know than do.

Is this meme trying to break class solidarity?