St. Patrick’s Day is
coming up. Inevitably, we’ll be hearing lots of nasty jokes about drunken Irish
alcoholics. Using stereotypes for
jokes is a terrible idea. Stereotypes are like cross-cultural fake news! It’s
so unfair to lump a group of people together and make fun of them just because
of where they or their ancestors came from.
For example, there are
many people of Irish ancestry who don’t abuse alcohol at all. Many prefer to
pop pills or smoke dope. They might partake of legal drugs when they can get a
prescription for painkillers or sedatives, or illegal drugs when they can’t.