Infact the term Black Irish comes from the idea of Anglo-Americans that the Irish and Blacks were destined to become one race. Hence the terms for blacks as Smoked Irish.  Well Comrade Redstar, just FYI, no you are wrong about that. Black Irish just means Irish people who are dark complected and of a more Mediterranean appearance. Swarthy Irish people, and no it is not a slur. I am Irish-American and my maternal grandparents are what you would call Black Irish, that is 100% Irish but of a dark complection, with a look like you would expect from a stereotypical, dark haired, brown eyed Spaniard or southern Italian. The most popular and agreed upon explanation for the 'Black Irish' phenomenon is that the original inhabitants of Ireland(& Britain) were of a Mediterranean type who sailed up there from Iberia, before the Celts showed up. This has actually been pretty well proven with modern genetics testing. The Black Irish are almost identical to Iberians, their DNA is practically identical, which makes sense because the Spaniards like the Black Irish are generally a Celtic/Mediterranean mix.    I think the term you may be thinking of would be White ni##er which is what they used to call the Irish. Back in those days the WASPs viewed the Blacks as smoked Irish or just Black Irish(but this is of course in a different context than the real Black Irish aka dark complected Irish) and the Irish as White ni##ers. Signs at WASP owned businesses would often read No Blacks, No Irish. In those Blackface minstrel shows they not only portrayed super racist, stereotyped versions of Blacks but also Irish too. To the WASPs the Blacks and Irish were about nearly equal:rolleyes: Because they were both seen as slave/servant class, dangerous, violent, immoral and criminal people, and it didn't help that the Irish were Catholic. There has been much done to whitewash the history of the Irish and it's hard now to imagine that at one time the Irish and Blacks were practically viewed as one in the same, unfortunately. But anyhow, Black Irish is not a slur and you have it wrong. But since you seem to be so into offensive caricatures of Irish people comparing them to Blacks here is another classic for your collection:rolleyes: It's from the 1870s.     the minstrel shows often featured grotesque caricatures of Irish and Black men and women being sexually inappropriate, drinking excessively, joking, laughing, acting like children, being overly aggressive and being represented as just a step above animals.   The Irish and blacks were often paired against each other, spurned forward by the acceptance of the dominant white culture. Here is a drawing of a black man being weighed against an Irish man and the two coming up equal.       http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/magic/news/irish3.gif    Well, the Irish sure have came a long way haven't we? From being amongst the lowest of the low, from being SLAVES and servants and street urchins, from being considered White ni**ers to being one of the most revered and successful ethnic groups in America (if not the most), people used to despise the Irish and now every year in March the entire USA is pretending to be Irish, including WASPs and non-Whites:D :clink And we did it all without begging and demanding for special treatment and handouts, without affirmative action, without government assistance or charity of any kind, without crying and bit*hing and complaining. The Irish didn't cry, and complain and beg, we worked hard to be accepted and to be successful. But the Blacks.....they're still just the same....and they can't stop feeling sorry for themselves and begging and demanding for special treatment and hand outs...I wonder why....