The Magical Whiteness of Being Irish: Language and Song in American White Nationalism

Abstract

The use of “CelTiC”-Themed imagery—in clothing, tattoos, and business logos—has a long history in the United States. Its usage has generally been a simplified identifier of affiliation with Irish and/or Scottish heritage, and it is often uncritically adopted at the same level by tourists who visit Ireland and tell Irish people, “We’re Irish.” While white supremacists have also periodically drawn from Celtic imagery to support a claim of Celtic “whiteness,” that usage was fairly diffuse until recently. The public rise of white nationalism since the US presidential election of 2016, however, has led to adherents’ more public usage of Celtic symbolism. Three statements from Irish/Celtic Studies institutions in the United States publicly reject such appropriation. In early 2020, members of the Harvard Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures posted these words on the home page of their website: “There is no essential genetic ‘Celtic’ identity, nor is any ethnicity or group of ethnicities entitled to a privileged position within the field. Certain symbols associated with medieval Ireland and loosely identified as ‘Celtic’ have been appropriated by groups asserting the supremacy of persons with white skin. We repudiate this appropriation in the strongest possible terms.” Similarly, the Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University’s “Anti-Racism Statement” includes the following language: “Too often have white supremacists