IMHO people have lost their sense of humour :grin:
Westley is asking the Irish community not to purchase anything from Walmart stores for the month of March.
Personally, I detest stereotyping of any group anywhere.
Mick - Derogatory term for an Irishman in the U.S. and U.K. It is derived from Mickey and Mikey, nicknames for Mícheál, a common Irish name for males after St. Michael.
Paddy - Derogatory term for an Irish man, derived from a nickname for Pádraig, a common Irish name for males after St. Patrick.
Pogue - Epithet derived from the Irish phrase, "Pog mo Thoin", meaning kiss my arse. It is generally not considered offensive.
Taig - Extremely offensive term, deriving from the Irish Gaelic forename Tadhg, often used to describe Catholics in Northern Ireland. It often has implications of Republican sympathy.
Snout- Offensive term used in Northern Ireland to describe Protestants of British descent living in Northern Ireland.
Hun - Offensive term used in Northern Ireland to describe Protestants of British descent living in Northern Ireland.
No big deal, I can't even remember exactly when St Patrick's Day, sometime this month isn't it? I have dual British and Irish citizenship!
How'd that happen? You had a relative born in Ireland? Just curious.
For me that's dangerous thinking for it leads to the ultimate of stereotyping; bigotry. I dislike lumping people together and attributing to them traits that may or may not apply to them individually.
I like the concept of taking people as I find them and not having preconceived ideas about someone because of their ethinic backgrounds. Not to mention it doesn't make me laugh and I love comedy in many forms. Just not when it's aimed at someones ethnicity.
I would have to be blind not to see that some Italians are dark-skinned. It's only natural for people to categorize other people, so I'm bound to make a separate division, if only in my mind, for dark-skinned Italians.
That doesn't make me a bigot - that only happens when I treat them differently because of their skin color.
Ethnicity, being a part of everyone's life and no one having had a choice in the matter, is prime material for comics. I feel that pointing out that this behavior or that is stereotyping is only prolonging the existence of prejudice. Accept it, laugh about it and move on, I say. Instead we get stuck repeating the same useless mantras in our search for universal peace.
There IS no such thing as universal peace - Man was not made for that. He was made to struggle. Part of that struggle is, like the rest of Nature, based upon observing differences between your race ("species") and others.
How did soldiers in the Civil War recognize the enemy? By their uniforms - it was impossible to differentiate one American from another.
Fast forward to World War II, especially in the Pacific Theater - how did we recognize the enemy? By skin tone and facial structure. Viet Nam? Iraq? The same. No, not ALL of the people with those characteristics were the enemy, but it served as a starting point for our troops.
I would enjoy living in a perfect world. Unfortunately, the only one I have is this one.
Essex is a county in England.....which borders Greater London to the north. It sticks into the sea, and is often mocked because of some of it's less educated women, who tend to be blonde, wear white stilettos , and talk in a way unrecognisable by anybody else....which is a complete stereotype, and not true![/QUOTE]
Oh! please Viv, don't spoil the illusion.:lol1:
Sorry Bee, My early education was ended in the 5th. grade. I'm not stupid, just ignorant. But I love to learn. :hatoff:
Sorry Bee...I live in Essex too; and have no white stilettos ; but I wasn't born here...