Irish Memes: Proof of a Guilty Conscience
There is something strange about these Irish slavery memes that I think need to be addressed, and that is that these memes reveal that Anglo Americans know (to a certain extent) just how awful the slave trade was and the dehumanizing treatment of enslaved Africans by white Europeans. Seen in this light the memes of white slavery give Anglo Americans an out in which they can recuse themselves from having to confront the legacy of white supremacy and to a further extent the continued participation of Anglo Americans in the domination of Black people. There is a sense of triumph because the Anglo Americans understands that people of African descent have them in a moral hold, that there is a debt to which they cannot repay. The presence of the meme relieves their conscience allowing them to say to Black Americans, “see it’s not just one sided, we were treated as badly as you were, we were victims too,” evening if this is not true that fact that the meme exists is enough for them to believe. The wholehearted belief in the meme reveals how desperate many are to relieve themselves of the guilt that coming with having white skin and its historical implications.