Hi—I'm the anon who wrote the above about racism & Celtic imagery. As the other anon said, Irish imagery, like Scandinavian imagery, is often co-opted by white supremacists, so much so that it's become a dog whistle to me.
Maybe more significantly in my own life, in the VERY Irish-American city where I'm from, "Irish pride" is used as an excuse by white people (who would be racist regardless of their cultural extraction) to conceal their racism. You find it in institutions which—in that city—are historically exclusionist and dangerously racist, like, ironically, the fire dept. "I chose Mike O'Hara for the job because he's, you know, he fits in. He's like us. He's from the neighborhood." Said without exception by a guy with a big ol Celtic cross on his dumb upper arm, as if he even knows what a Celtic cross means. In the next sentence he'll utter some racist slang you thought died in 1925. And then he and his buddies will get drunk and beat up a black guy.
I'll bet there are variations of this kind of I'm-not-racist-I'm-proud-of-my-heritage amongst racists in every ethnic group. It's just that Irish-Americans are the group that I know—and, because where I'm from Irish-Americans are historically powerful, the racists among them are especially dangerous. And That's Why I Don't Like Celtic Tattoos I Hope You Enjoyed Reading This Report As Much As I Enjoyed Writing It
Re: Ex- sort of DAYDian open for questions
Maybe more significantly in my own life, in the VERY Irish-American city where I'm from, "Irish pride" is used as an excuse by white people (who would be racist regardless of their cultural extraction) to conceal their racism. You find it in institutions which—in that city—are historically exclusionist and dangerously racist, like, ironically, the fire dept. "I chose Mike O'Hara for the job because he's, you know, he fits in. He's like us. He's from the neighborhood." Said without exception by a guy with a big ol Celtic cross on his dumb upper arm, as if he even knows what a Celtic cross means. In the next sentence he'll utter some racist slang you thought died in 1925. And then he and his buddies will get drunk and beat up a black guy.
I'll bet there are variations of this kind of I'm-not-racist-I'm-proud-of-my-heritage amongst racists in every ethnic group. It's just that Irish-Americans are the group that I know—and, because where I'm from Irish-Americans are historically powerful, the racists among them are especially dangerous. And That's Why I Don't Like Celtic Tattoos I Hope You Enjoyed Reading This Report As Much As I Enjoyed Writing It