I feel like in Philly the different kinds of white people didn't really assimilate as much as in other American cities. They don't have like, significant differences in the power they wield but they have remained culturally distinct and continue to have their own unique stereotypes and stuff.
Like Philly still has a completely distinct Italian Part of The City which is different from the completely distinct Polish Part of the City which is distinct from the WASP Part Of The City. And people get identified as Italian or Polish or Pennsylvania Dutch specifically all the time rather than just as European.
They're still all functionally one group in terms of systemic racism it's not like whiteness doesn't exist and have power here they're just not like, all one monolithic mash-up all the time no matter what. People hate Italians specifically all the time.
And holy shit the patrons at work are always expressing comical levels of Anti-Irish Sentiment including telling me that certain patrons should be forcibly removed from the library for Being Irish (because the Irish are all Diseased and also are all related to the Kennedys who have Done Bad Things?) I've never encountered genuine Anti-Irish Sentiment before I moved to Philly. None of the people telling me how much they hate the Irish have systemic power to do anything and they're regarded as nuts by everyone else but there's a shocking amount of them.
It's such a bizarre culture shock to me haha
