Did Ben Racism ever actually go to any of these places? Curious how you would distinguish a German from a Brit purely on the basis of appearance
He traveled to Europe, but the Germans he’s talking about there were probably the Pennsylvania “Palatine Boor” farmers, who were from around the Rhine Valley. What he really means is that you can visibly distinguish a poor farmer from a white upper class city dweller based on complexion.
He also has a political motivation here to exclude Germans and Swedes from whiteness because Franklin wanted a purely Anglo America since he was racist as heck
You’re telling me supergenius founding father Franklin (PBUH) couldn’t tell the difference between dirt and having dark skin?
I dunno if you’re being sarcastic but if not there used to be a stark divide between pale wealthier white people (indoors) and poorer tanned white people (outdoors). Having a tan put you in a lower caste. Apparently this was such a noticeable thing you could visibly tell which people in Pennsylvania were German or English
