This is an 1882 cartoon. The men sitting at the table represent Fritz, a German and Pat, an Irishman. They are discussing what race is going to be tabooed next. They are adversaries when looking for a job, but as the "Chinese Question" aroused in 1870, the question was suspended. Fritz the German (smoking a pipe and holding a mug of German beer) seems to know who might be the next. He directs his question to Pat, the Irishman. The Irishman is considering the implications of the question. The Irish had been considered by other white people not fully white.