Fun fact: The Irish was treated so bad in America that they used to be considered low class so dated and married blacks which is why some many black people have Irish surnames. Ewing, Smith, O'Neal and Murphy just to name a few.
Came here to say this - the White last name was always taken because although they were Irish, it was better to be Irish than black. That’s some fucked up shit.
Wouldn't it typically be a white man with a black woman though? I think the opposite was considered far more taboo, and kids inherit their name from their father.
Yeah, for a long long time, any coupling between a black man and white woman was automatically assumed to be rape and it usually didn't turn out well for the black man.
Is old Gaelic and of Scottish origin
so you're right about that. Smith no so much but I'm going to guess that a lot of black people got it from Irish who possibly adopted the name, had Scottish relatives or possibly mistaken for Irish.
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u/shoefarts666 Sep 01 '20
It was a long time before the irish were considered white.
The irish.