Meathead
10 Apr 2012
Genealogy / Being ashamed of Polish ancestry? [156]
Ethnic jokes started with the ethnics who immigrated to America. Polish jokes came from Poles, Italian jokes came from Italians and so on and so forth. Native born Americans don't know enough about Europeans or Asians to create jokes. Americans are ignorant of anything outside of America.
BS, Europeans are much harder drinkers than any American. Beer on the British Isles, Vodka in Northern Europe, wine everywhere else. Growing up in ethnic Chicago it wasn't unusual to see Polish (recent arrivals from post war Europe) drunks literally sleeping in the gutter on a Saturday.
If Poles feel ashamed of their heritage it's because of the baggage they carry from the old country. Most likely due to the European class system than anything here in America. The biggest story is Americans think Poles are stupid because of Nazi propaganda from WWII. Hello! America was fighting the Nazi's in WWII, they wouldn't have believed anything Hitler had to say!
If anyone asks me my ethnic heritage I tell them I'm a polak from Chicago, end of story. But you know what? I have a hard time remembering the last time when someone asked me.
^ This is untrue. The Irish were already coming to America in large numbers in the mid-19th Century, before either the Poles or the Italians, nor do ethnic jokes in America switch from one ethnicity to another in the manner claimed. Polish, Italian, Irish, and Mexican jokes exist, and have existed, concurrently here.
Ethnic jokes started with the ethnics who immigrated to America. Polish jokes came from Poles, Italian jokes came from Italians and so on and so forth. Native born Americans don't know enough about Europeans or Asians to create jokes. Americans are ignorant of anything outside of America.
Who are your countrymen? I know several American friends who drink before going out to a bar. It saves them money that way. I don't think it's as much specific to a particular country as it is just something some people do to save money if they plan on getting drunk when going out versus going out to just have fun.
BS, Europeans are much harder drinkers than any American. Beer on the British Isles, Vodka in Northern Europe, wine everywhere else. Growing up in ethnic Chicago it wasn't unusual to see Polish (recent arrivals from post war Europe) drunks literally sleeping in the gutter on a Saturday.
If Poles feel ashamed of their heritage it's because of the baggage they carry from the old country. Most likely due to the European class system than anything here in America. The biggest story is Americans think Poles are stupid because of Nazi propaganda from WWII. Hello! America was fighting the Nazi's in WWII, they wouldn't have believed anything Hitler had to say!
If anyone asks me my ethnic heritage I tell them I'm a polak from Chicago, end of story. But you know what? I have a hard time remembering the last time when someone asked me.