Correct me if I'm wrong, but celebrating St. Patrick's Day by drinking is like celebrating Martin Luther King day by eating fried chicken and watermelon.
i mean, it's not like the Irish (in Ireland, mind you) don't have drinks on this day but it's also a religious holiday with a lot more to it than binge drinking at 9am...which is what the tourist BUS full on 20-somethings were on the mission to do in front my job this morning.
Well... Not really. Your thesis rests on a pair of shared ironies: Getting drunk on St. Patrick's day is as ironic as eating fried chicken and watermelon on Martin Luther King day.
But I'm not sure there's an irony in the getting drunk part. Getting drunk is an ugly stereotype of Irish people, no doubt about it. And eating fried chicken is an ugly stereotype of African-Americans, no doubt about it.
But MLK is celebrated for his role in the civil rights movement -- wherein he attempted (among other things) to shatter stereotypes. So playing into those stereotypes would be kind of dumb and ironic.
St. Patrick, on the other hand, had nothing to do with shattering Irish stereotypes. He's celebrated for his ability to spread the dogma, to convert the heathens (or drive them out, depending on what you're reading), his unwillingness to accept gifts or patronage from nobility (a big deal at the time), and various other stuff. Including, as legend has it, evicting the snakes from Ireland (though, apparently, post-Ice Age Ireland never had
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i mean, it's not like the Irish (in Ireland, mind you) don't have drinks on this day but it's also a religious holiday with a lot more to it than binge drinking at 9am...which is what the tourist BUS full on 20-somethings were on the mission to do in front my job this morning.
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I've been wishing everyone a happy Emulate Irish Alcoholism Day.
...now I'm hungry for fried chicken.
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But I'm not sure there's an irony in the getting drunk part. Getting drunk is an ugly stereotype of Irish people, no doubt about it. And eating fried chicken is an ugly stereotype of African-Americans, no doubt about it.
But MLK is celebrated for his role in the civil rights movement -- wherein he attempted (among other things) to shatter stereotypes. So playing into those stereotypes would be kind of dumb and ironic.
St. Patrick, on the other hand, had nothing to do with shattering Irish stereotypes. He's celebrated for his ability to spread the dogma, to convert the heathens (or drive them out, depending on what you're reading), his unwillingness to accept gifts or patronage from nobility (a big deal at the time), and various other stuff. Including, as legend has it, evicting the snakes from Ireland (though, apparently, post-Ice Age Ireland never had ( ... )
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