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Could we have a "Men of Irish Descent" group? I suspect that would cause all kinds of cries of racism and sexism.

There's this strange sort of argument that some groups (men, white people, cis people, thin people, etc) have some kind of ephemeral power and therefore should be denied certain privileges like forming exclusive groups - but these privileges are ok for some other people. That's not equality in any sense of the word.

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There are numerous Irish mutual-aid societies, most of which were set up to offset systematic discrimination against people of Irish descent in earlier times.

The argument is not that some groups have a sort of ephemeral power. The argument is that they had actual systematic power, and that minorities within a given sphere often lack actual power because their specific needs go overlooked.

Would you join a wheelchair users group and ask for a stairs advocacy subcommittee in the name of equality?

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