“the Irish are identified as fun loving… Not all of us, I promise”
There’s a joke in here… :-"
This may not be obvious, particularly if you live in a predominately white neighborhood. The town I live in is demographically <0.5% black… as far as I know 0% in my neighborhood, so not a lot of exposure. I was surprised to see that a <10 year old trick or treater that came by my house last night was dressed as Jackie Robinson in black face (wearing #42 baseball jersey). He was in a large group, with multiple parents walking with the kids. Given his age, I suspect his parents created the outfit for him, including the black face.
Having a heritage from one of the Nordic countries, feel free to assume that I’m thin, blonde and beautiful (which might not be remotely accurate), and more precisely from Finland, you could generalize that I’m a heavy drinking, socially awkward introvert (which might be accurate if you consider two glasses of wine a heavy drinker). 
I just think you have to be very careful how you say things that could be considered critical or judgmental to family and close friends. My goal at every family get together is to defuse disagreements and not say anything someone could take the wrong way…and be angry and offended for years. It’s always tough around elections.
@busdriver11 That is true. I had been talking specifically about the holiday of St. Patrick’s when I mentioned fun, good ale and profit. Many Irish businesses are relying on a fiscal bump for that holiday. Clearly there are some outliers who are not interested in fun or good ale on St. Patrick’s Day.
Sometimes within a culture, serious matters are explored with a dark or dry humor. I think serious issues are explored quite a bit within the UK and Ireland that way. I would not let Leprechaun kid be mocking but he is allowed to be silly and he is boyish enough with red curls for it to be perceived as silly IMO. He also would not be allowed to be silly outside his racial family. So he did want a Puerto Rican costume one year because we traveled there and he loved it. He wanted to be a Vejigante like they have at the Ponce Festival (Madris Gras). If that wasn’t an insane amount of work for me, I would have let him wear that cultural costume which I don’t think is disrespectful in any way.
Viking kid looked more authentic than Leprechaun kid. More of a cos play costume. He was not silly or mocking. And he self identities with Nordic culture in many ways and other people identity him as such visually. The same tall blond, thin but now more muscular, and more rugged now that he has a beard.
I am interested in fun and/or good ale on any day! B-)
^I know right. You’d think the opposite would be more troubling.
Well, actually, I find the stereotype that the Irish are a bunch of drunks unpleasant and demeaning.
Well, it’s better than the stereotype for my heritage…a bunch of suicidal, anti-social drunks. 
Honestly, I don’t think people really take these old stereotypes seriously anymore. At least I hope they don’t. There are negative and incorrect stereotypes about every single group of people out there, but it’s not worth spending the time to be offended over.
And 99.9% of people are just joking around when they call them drunks. It’s sad that people can’t pick up on humor these days…
But is it really funny and humorous? Especially when you have to hear it ad nauseam you whole life? I would imagine it gets old and tedious.
It’s the motive behind the jokes that matters most, IMO. If someone is just trying to lighten the mood (which is the case most of the time) it’s all in good fun… if you detect serious aggression in the jokes that’s a different story. The sad part is, many people don’t appear capable of differentiating anymore.
Perhaps I’m just old-school but I find some of the racial stereotypes to be rather funny, even when they are directed at white people (me), and especially when I KNOW the person is just trying lighten the mood.
@Consolation I can see how that would be annoying. I don’t think anyone suggested the Irish are a bunch of drunks here. Clearly this might have escalated because I said for the holiday of St. Patrick’s Day, people want to have fun and good ale. You could say the same thing for Octoberfest. We just celebrated also hoping for fun and good ale. Some festivities have such expectations.
“the Irish are identified as fun loving, beer swilling capitalists?”- as a red headed, fair skinned, freckle faced lady, I will happily admit to every bit of that stereotype. 
^ And that was referring to St. Paddy’s Day where I said I think Irish people are fine if people go nuts and wear take Irish wear as long as everyone is having fun, great ale and there is good profit. Those businesses have to make money money in March to survive sometimes. Somehow this has twisted into some larger statement. I don’t particularly like ale but Guinness on tap served in Dublin is amazing.
Have you seen the classic Cholo fitness video? It’s hilarious and full of stereotypes, including Mexican and white people stereotypes…
I nearly fell out of my chair when I first saw it. I live in southern California too so it hits pretty close to home 
Well, as it happens, @busdriver11 , I am also half Finnish. 
@gearmom , have you ever been in Manhattan on St. Patrick’s Day, when the lower-to-mid west side is full of drunken teenagers from NJ–most of them probably NOT Irish–vomiting in the gutters? Green beer? I remember a foreign-born employee asking an Irish-surnamed manager in my small company if she was going to go out and get drunk after work. And it was a serious, although obviously naive, question.
^^Then between us, we buck the stereotype, @Consolation!
I prefer the stereotype of Finns being ruggedly self sufficient and highly intelligent, myself.
@Consolation We are closer to Boston. No need to go elsewhere. Green beer,yuck. Probably rubbish American wheat beer with cancer causing dye. People do go nuts. I don’t think Irish Americans are too bothered by it in general. Dumb comments and all.
I usually do not have corner beef (I know so Irish American) on St. Pat’s Day but I will stock the freezer after when it goes on sale then. If lamb is a good price I’ll make a shepherd’s pie. I think we enjoy Pancake (Shrove) Tuesday more than St. Patrick’s Day because the kids love breakfast for dinner.
I have an Irish O’Irish name. I find St. Patrick’s Day obnoxious.
I do love a good beer though.
The difference between Irish stereotypes and Mexican stereotypes though is that Irish don’t face systemic discrimination like Mexican/Mexican-Americans do.
Now that said, as someone who is also Romani, I do rail against dressing up as a “Gypsy” for Halloween. We don’t get a good stereotype anywhere… 
@Data10 regardless of neighborhood demographics, I have a hard time accepting they don’t know. It has been discussed everywhere… magazine, news cast, social network, etc. My assumption (yes, I know danger of assuming), whenever I see black/brown/red face these days is that it was a choice. I’d assume they fall in the “PC is overrated” category as well. As @romanigypsyeyes pointed out, that is used to excuse bad behavior now.