Sorry, but you seem to have been sleeping under a rock for the past twenty years. While it is undoubtedly true that racism was rampant in English football in the 80s, it is ludicrous to ignore the gains that have been made since that time. Are you seriously claiming that it is commonplace, in 2013, for fans to spit on black players, call them monkeys and throw banana skins on the pitch? Sorry, but that’s total nonsense. There is, of course, the occasional isolated incident, but people who are caught engaging in such behaviour are given lengthy, often lifetime bans or arrested.
Also, what planet do you live on to say that English football team names are bland? Plymouth Argyle, Tottenham Hotspur, Sheffield Wednesday, Port Vale, Crystal Palace, Accrington Stanley, Preston North End, Leyton Orient, Nottingham Forest. These are great names.
I think you’re right… though I’m totally into my Irishiness lately, probably just due to listening to too much pogues and my dad dying this past year, etc. But in all honestly, despite a sort of rough beginnings in the states, due to being Catholic, most Irish were able to adapted and fit in right easily as free labor became the order of the day.
But potatoes weren’t a “natural” choice, they were an imperial choice specifically because English landlords took all the good land. I think Mike Davis in Late Victorian Holocausts argues that the English used Ireland as a lab for later policies in India, which pretty much amount to an active policy of moving food stuffs out of India and back to England and Europe, which was also seeing something of a less intense famine at the same time. Not only did the English take the best land in Ireland, leaving the peasantry to eek out a living on whatever rocky soil was left, but they also would actively move out grains and other agricultures that was being grown in Ireland, and did little to nothing to relieve the famine.
Plus, I think Millie’s point is that once the Irish came to America, they left the colonization behind and did not want to be associated with it, except perhaps in an abstract way–sending relief during the less famine. The Irish were not a colonized people in America, but they became one white ethnic group among many. Being Irish in America was not the same thing as being Irish in Ireland, I think she means… not to put words in her mouth. Cause she doesn’t need some presumptuous white chick making claims on her meaning, but that’s the way I read what she said. It isn’t downplaying the brutality of English colonlization of Ireland, but recognizes that the Irish became American, even as they worked to retain some Irishness (like me, for example…).
No prob, you got it! And being Irish American in America has come to mean that one has become white. Ethnicity is just an option, and mostly a nice or pleasant one.
And so, to get back the the OP’s topic, and the way some address it (“But what about the Fighting Irish?!”), Irish-themed team names and mascots are not at all the same problem, or even a problem at all really, in the way that Indian-themed ones are.
See, BoingBoing? Shit like this. My mom came from a family that changed their name because it was dangerous to be German, where they were from. Could Nazi that one coming.
Must have worked, too, because my grandpa was drafted when he was 45 and sent to be a guard at an interment camp…smh…what a sad period of U.S. history.
I guess if you’re from south of the Mason Dixon we’re all Yankees up here (but then if you’re from Mexico then even a Texan is a Yankee, so I guess that’s just how it goes.)
Hell, my father-in-law was from Galax, VA, and when he lived in Conway, SC, people down there called him a Yankee.
The slur “kraut”. Especially popular during and after World War II, from what I’ve been told by vets I’ve met over the years was reserved for German soldiers. Being called a “kraut” by that age group was pretty offensive, usually in the same tones they’d call a black man a “n----er” or any number of terms they’d use for Japanese people.
The especially bizarre thing about the Collinsville lynching listed on that first link is that it’s a heavily German area; some of the town names within a 30-mile radius are New Baden, Albers, and Germantown.
I agree that it’s lost its sting over the years, but to say “if it ever had any” is just plain ignorant, if not offensive to anyone with a basic grasp of world history of the past century.
Well, as I wrote, “if it ever had any,” allowing that it may have. Thanks for letting me know that it did. Not that it matters much anymore today, given that German Americans have joined the white club if they look white.
Jeez, Shane. WHEN are you gonna catch the drift here? Stereotyping only counts if you are darker than Jerry Falwell. Besides, everybody knows about Germans. Buncha Stoics. They don’t feel it anyway. Especially if it’s clean and well-ordered suffering. See?
As a Jew, I find the NY Jews cap extremely funny. But then again, Jews have not been a discriminated minority in North America in my lifetime. And I don’t personally feel threatened by it. But Native Americans are feeling the racism every day.
You just white whined about how you’re discriminated against as a white man from the suburbs. It laughably speaks for itself. Good luck with your struggle…
You must’ve missed the irony, not to mention the sarcasm? See, to have notions of ‘white pride’ as you use it here, one would have to be…you know, ‘white’? Personally, I profess to be extremely proud of my own and each color that they are, and hope we all do the same.
Say, you know where’s a good place to start? Stop with the white stereotype. It’s not a thing. Either you do denigrate other humans by stereotyping them, or you do not. And that includes all the people you perceive as ‘white’ people. That simple.
There are plenty of Native Americans who don’t walk around in a swirl of racism every day. Racism exists, certainly. But a lot of that racism is not what you would think. For example, you might find it offensive if I suggested that whatever ‘most’ white people orgs or jewish orgs say reflects your own experience. And yet, you are perfectly happy to tell ME what is offensive? C’mon, man.
If anyone here thinks the worst a NA has to deal with is that stupid baseball logo, then go head on. Enjoy your insulated little fantasy world. If the wealthier Nations ever wanted to, they could easily buy the team and change the name.
I don’t need you to GIVE me any pride, because I TAKE pride, as should we all.
And the louder and more indignant it all becomes, the more it just turns into a bunch of self-righteous bullshit. ‘Oh, you poor sad little puppy-can’t-take-up-for-yourself-you-disadvantaged-little-thing-you-here-I-fixed-it, now see what a fabulous human I am? All for you, you poor little victim,’. To which I must say, hey. Get an actual dog. They are the sub-humans you are looking to congratulate yourself over. And if all you actually do for them is post crap on the internet? Then I totally hope they bite you.
