Saint Badass Day

It's probably not my place to complain about the celebration of negative stereotypes that accompanies St. Patrick's Day. But, since my inappropriate range of affect is on full display, I'll go ahead and put my foot in it.

Today, I saw a young woman walking around wearing a baseball cap with a little gauge graphic on it, listing a range of states that included "drunk" "belligerent" and "Irish". Her arrow pointed to "Irish." When I saw this proud and cheerful young woman, I thought perhaps we black people have been advised to model ourselves on the wrong minorities.

I tend to believe that African-Americans need to turn away from self-destructive badassed posturing, yet in the case of the Irish-Americans, the badass pose doesn't seem to hurt them, at least not now. Maybe I ought to rethink my mild middle class values. Most Americans who belong to a group with a badass reputation take some advantage of it, not only to sell music or cable television series, but for its original purpose, to ward off attacks. Harold and Kumar, fictional examples to be sure, were at a bit of a loss without it.

Perhaps I could tap into the power of badass ethnicity. For starters, I may celebrate Black History Month by going around selling red, black and green crack pipes or 40 ounce malt liquor wrapped in kente cloth.

Or maybe not.