It's funny. I could list, off the top of my head, dozens of jokes about Irish people on American network TV that are as vitriolic as what Roseanne said, but nobody gives a shit because Irish people are white, and they laugh off what is, basically, racism.
I know it's different for blacks but Irish people were historically treated like shit, too, until the 60's, and even then, the bigotry continued under Kennedy's presidency.
On the one hand I think black people should relax a little; after all slavery and segregation ended a long time ago. On the other, I think what Roseanne said was hideous but it's not really much worse than some of the stuff you see said about Irish people ; so what, is there a hierarchy of racism?
Turn on Fox News and any given day there'll be a bigoted remark about Irish (Kilmeade, Shepard Smith) but life will go on.
I also recall Kilmeade making bigoted remarks about Italians, too, but Joe Colombo isn't around anymore, so what can you do.
Moe I'm not sure what history books you're reading but by the 1960's the Irish had completely taken over most police forces on the East coast, created extremely powerful political machines, some that exist to this day. Please tell me how they were being systematically oppressed in the 1960's. No offense, but the comparison you're trying to make is not even close man.
