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

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You’re telling me supergenius founding father Franklin (PBUH) couldn’t tell the difference between dirt and having dark skin?

![shocked-pikachu](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/54be3ef5-1a78-4b59-af0f-991a5994a32a.png "emoji shocked-pikachu")

[–] axont@hexbear.net 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That’s not necessarily an ethnic difference. I’m sure if you kept the Germans indoors 23 hours a day they wouldn’t be “swarthy”.

Seems more like a class divide to me

[–] axont@hexbear.net 12 points 1 year ago

Yeah pretty much. Franklin wanted all non-Anglos to be a lower class in America.

[–] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

yes but he gets to decide how he's racist and if anyone could make him believe in only rational things he wouldn't be racist