There's a frequent claim, especially amongst the American far-right, that chattel slavery of Irish people was a common thing (it wasn't, outside isolated cases, generally of non-white Irish people eg https://medium.com/@Limerick1914/an-irish-slave-in-antigua-7...), and that this somehow shows that slavery isn't a factor in the modern socioeconomic condition of black people in the US (because Irish people in the US had better socioeconomic outcomes).
In reality, indentured servitude of Irish people (and English people) was common in the early colonisation of America. This would be considered _modern_ slavery, colloquially (the term slavery is in a modern context used for all unfree labour), but it wasn't _chattel_ slavery, and was pretty dramatically different from chattel slavery. In addition, most Irish people immigrated to the America in the 19th century as free immigrants.
The Irish slavery myth isn't inherently racist (though it is inherently ahistorical), but it is often used as a racist talking point.
By the way, it's worth noting that claims of widespread Irish chattel slavery are almost exclusively an American thing. Here in Ireland history classes etc give a more accurate impression of it. Cromwell engaged in in forced population displacement and unfree labour in Ireland (and there's certainly a case that he engaged in genocide), but not chattel slavery. Think more Stalin than Caesar.
Thanks. So it's a term that's taken its own life in US, and is not itself offensive, but labels the user as a member of one faction in the current US culture wars.
Even if one was speaking only about Irish history without any link to US.
In reality, indentured servitude of Irish people (and English people) was common in the early colonisation of America. This would be considered _modern_ slavery, colloquially (the term slavery is in a modern context used for all unfree labour), but it wasn't _chattel_ slavery, and was pretty dramatically different from chattel slavery. In addition, most Irish people immigrated to the America in the 19th century as free immigrants.
The Irish slavery myth isn't inherently racist (though it is inherently ahistorical), but it is often used as a racist talking point.
Much more context here: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/04/19/how-myth-iris... ; tldr; it's complicated.
By the way, it's worth noting that claims of widespread Irish chattel slavery are almost exclusively an American thing. Here in Ireland history classes etc give a more accurate impression of it. Cromwell engaged in in forced population displacement and unfree labour in Ireland (and there's certainly a case that he engaged in genocide), but not chattel slavery. Think more Stalin than Caesar.