He's not excluding the Irish. He's saying that it was discrimination against a small pocket of Europeans that weren't considered white at the time. There was never a time in American history where all whites as a group (Irish, Italian, Polish, German, English, French, and so on) were discriminated against under the umbrella of "white people." There were times when some of those European groups were terrible to others, but that was more specific.
How about not being able to vote? Yes southern white men could not vote at one time. Think about it.
Because only wealthy white male landowners could vote. They weren't discriminated against because they were white, they were discriminated against cause they were broke, didn't own shit worth bragging about, or didn't have a penis.
Another way Republicans kept control in the South was by preventing whites from voting there. They passed a law saying no southerner could vote if he had taken part in the rebellion against the Union. This prevented the majority of southern whites from voting for Democrats and against Republicans.Jul 13, 2005
So not because they were white, but because they took part in a rebellion. ---