Black History Month is over, Long Live Irish American Heritage Month

Monday Memo

One of the phrases I have become known for since my conversation with Stephen G. Adubato a few years ago is that country is a “federation of families.” In a multi-ethnic country like the USA you can have a common culture that is pluralist, and relatively low-friction when you treat American ethnic groups as cultural extended families. And just as in families, your traditions and celebrations have to come from within to really mean something. How your family celebrates Christmas and Thanksgiving reveals who you are. But also, families grow to include new spouses, and even friends who become so much like blood relations, that you cannot imagine not saving a place for them at the table.

I recently spoke with Aaron M. Renn about how we can think about race in America. I am grateful to him for his invitation and the conversation. I’ll link to it below.¹ We cannot erase history, nor should we even try. But we can think intentionally about important matters in order to live more fully in the present.

I think of this as we transition from Black History Month every year, because March is Irish American Heritage Month, and I have never had an Irish American student in my class who knew that. The other day I came across a this statement on the Ancient Order of Hibernians website:

“Since 1991, American President’s of both parties and numerous acts of Congress and the Senate have designated March as “Irish American Heritage Month”, a time to honor the numerous contributions that Irish immigrants and their descendants have made to our country. Sadly despite the fact that these Presidential proclamations “call upon all Americans to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Irish Americans to our Nation with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs“, Irish American Heritage month has not received recognition comparable to that shown to other Heritage Months by our public and education institutions.”²

Three things I note: 1) The Ancient Order of Hibernians notes that the responsibility for celebrating March as a designated heritage month belongs to the Irish American community, and 2) that Black History month’s origins predate the creation of federal month of recognition by fifty years, which account the for depth of celebration, and 3) when people reduce the Irish to being “White” the flattening loses what is special about the Irish and being Irish.

The third point is especially important because it gives the appearance that “Whites” are excluded from the recognition given to other groups during Asian American Heritage Month in May, or Hispanic Heritage Month in September-October. And that appearance is there because it is true. But the reason it is true is because “White” is the dominant category in America and the others are more exotic and can be commercialized as well as acting as a badge for people to display their inclusion. As a result Irish American Heritage is celebrated big time on Saint Patrick’s Day when the Taoiseach, the Irish prime minister, visits the United States every year. But the rest of the month gets very little attention. So because I have my own Irish-American old-man who will probably read this post—my master’s thesis advisor who is basically like me Da—I am going write and podcast a bit about Ireland and Irish Americans this month in addition to my normal topics. I’ll do my part for the shamrock folks.

That’s the Monday Memo for this week, additional analysis for member subscribers below.