Our own Becket Adams pointed out this afternoon that ESPN “First Take” host Max Kellerman is hating on the Leprechaun, the mascot beloved of the University of Notre Dame students, alumni, and subway alumni alike.
Most people who are ethnic Irish in America, or who have any sort of association with Notre Dame, would probably advise Kellerman (in a far less polite way) to go find something better to do with himself. But it’s not enough just to dismiss what he says out of hand, because he rationalizes it with universal principles that no one can possibly follow or honor as serious.
The most ridiculous line comes right at the end of this video posted by the Free Beacon’s Alex Griswold. Kellerman rationalizes his Leprechaun-phobia by laying down a rule that “pernicious, negative stereotypes of marginalized people that offend even some among them should be changed” and that this applies “even if it is a minority of the group that is offended.”
This simply goes too far. By this line of thinking, we will be deeming a “Spartan” or “Trojan” mascot offensive to Doric or Ionic Greeks, respectively, if we can find one single Greek person to say it is offensive.
Sorry, but in real life, we can’t all be dictated to by the most offended person in the room. It’s about time people were reminded that whatever isn’t intended as an insult probably isn’t one.
Consider “Finnegan’s Wake.” It’s a folk song that ninnies like Kellerman would surely characterize as highly offensive, portraying the Irish as rowdy drunks who can’t even avoid brawling at a dead man’s wake. If most Irish Americans love and adore this song and sing along with it routinely in pubs like Washington’s own Dubliner and Irish Times, then who is Kellerman to tell them that they should stop liking it and instead submit to the opinion of whichever professional offense-taker happens to be on hand?
And yes, some things are really offensive, it’s true. Some mascots probably should change, and any mascot with a name like Chief Wahoo seems like a pretty good candidate. But nicknames and mascots aren’t offensive just because they relate to American Indians or Irish Americans or any other potentially offended group.
During my own undergraduate years at Notre Dame in the late 1990s, we had this silliness about the Leprechaun mascot come up at least twice. Each time, it was evident from the near-universal reaction on campus that the ethnic Irish there felt much like the 90 percent of American Indians who think respectful mascots invoking their heritage are just fine: There is no offense intended; people don’t name their teams or design their mascots to invoke something unless they highly respect and admire it (say, the fighting spirit of Spartans, Scots, or Sioux); and, given the genuinely Irish origins of the “Fighting Irish” moniker, it was perfectly appropriate to use a distinctively Irish mascot like a mythical leprechaun. And yes, that goes even if Father William Corby surely discouraged the troops from believing in such superstitions at Gettysburg.
I’d only add that it’s doubly unfair for white liberals like Kellerman to specifically single out historically wronged minorities (in this case, the Irish, the worst-treated Europeans in this country’s history) and tell them that they are forced to live under the tyranny of the minority of their minority — the dictatorship of their own most-offended members. The Irish have rights, too, and they may think for themselves as much as any WASP or plain-vanilla hipster who afflicts our nation’s cities today. (Someday, maybe white liberals will even condescend to acknowledge that there’s diversity of opinion among black and Hispanic voters, too.)
The worst part about all this is that no one thinks Kellerman actually believes what he’s saying here about the Irish. He is just feigning consistency to make an otherwise unpalatable argument seem less so. It’s embarrassing.
So Kellerman, go jump in a lake. Or both lakes.
