Paradigma e excepcionalidade no evento racial do Atlântico Verde

This article aims to reflect on how the ambiguous, anomalous, and complex processes of Irish history expose the dynamics of antiblackness as paradigmatic for the concept of “Human” and the exceptionality of the Irish experience. Based on the theoretical framework of black radical thought (SILVA, 2019; WILDERSON III, 2010, 2020) and Irish historiography (KENNY, 2006; O’NEILL; LLOYD, 2010; OHLMEYER, 2023), I will explore the Irish presence in the Atlantic, considering the ambiguity and complexity of the Irish as victims and agents of colonial projects in the Americas and Africa, as well as Frederick Douglass’s visit to Ireland in the nineteenth century. Following the term “racial event” proposed by Denise Ferreira da Silva (2019), I argue that the Green Atlantic demonstrates (1) the exceptionality of the Irish case for the experience of whiteness, (2) the ruses of the analogy between the black and Irish experiences and (3) the paradigmatic position of antiblackness for the project of forming Irish identity and its inscription in the “human family”.