Is my subconscious mind racist against the Irish? Insert “it’s more likely than you think” meme.
So I was dreaming stuff inspired by my actual childhood (a lot of walking around with my siblings punctuated with tedious domestic strife), but mashed up with TV’s The Sopranos – a show I only have a pop culture impression of. Dad was fully Tony, the rest of us were characters that didn’t exist. My sister was getting a ride from one of Tony’s boys, who was trying to molest her even tho I was in the backseat. We tussled a bit, then parted ways. Tony beat him to death while feeling slightly bad about it.
They leave a calling card for some Asian gangsters to frame him and dump the body in a crowded police precinct lobby. For some reason the crowd broke into song. No dance, but they did do a light show with laser pointers.
Cut to some kind of meeting with the Irish mob, led by a modern “Ma Kelly” type. She praises Tony’s cooking (she was holding a calzone) and then intros her daughter with, “All rise, for ‘God Save America,’ from the musical ‘Annie’.” (nonexistent) The girl starts lalala-ing the intro for uncomfortable minutes, until her mom interrupts with, “why don’t you sing something nice by Metallica?” She meant to imply Metallica’s (nonexistent) patriotic song, and cut the mic when the girl guessed wrong (“Sad but True”).
This all took place in a sportball field by an underpass, with colorful fall leaves strewn about. The mostly Irish audience were falling down drunk, like in another dream where they had to fight ninjas and were so insensate they didn’t mind getting slaughtered.
At the end of the dream I’m Junior Soprano again, waiting in a car with my sister, and I tell her, “It’s great how you don’t kill people who bother you.” She’s dismissive but I’m like, “You and I both know that’s a real skill, c’mon.”
The End.
Racism against the Irish in the USA isn’t the same thing it used to be, of course. Irish people were allowed to be considered white and that’s all she wrote. Now they’re actually part of a problem like the rest of us honkies. Aside from some very weird anticatholic throwbacks (are there any left since Jack Chick died?), nobody here is racist against them in a meaningful way.
Except me when I’m asleep. What’s up with that?
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I do not think that dreams are our subconscious, they are usually a mess that contains a mixture of our wishes and desires but also our dreads and fears as well as things we only vaguely care about if at all, or have seen recently or dozens of years ago. Some of my dreams that I remember contained actually decent plots for a short story or even a novel, and some were recreations of movies I saw at some time, or novels I read. And I had some lucid dreams too – when I realized that I am asleep and that I can do whatever I want. Those were fun, but unfortunately never last long, I usually wake up.
In short, whatever the content of one’s dreams, I do personally do not think one’s biases can be reasonably gleamed from them.
@Charly
I agree. Perhaps if a certain theme is consistent over time, it might mean something, but generally I’d say that dreams are more like free association.
… some very weird anticatholic throwbacks (are there any left since Jack Chick died?)…
Yup. In government, too.
thanks for the comments charly & lyke
holy shit pierce that’s wild. what a freak. does he swear by phrenology while he’s at it?
Aside from some very weird anticatholic throwbacks (are there any left since Jack Chick died?), nobody here is racist against them in a meaningful way.
Well, there’s Saint Patrick’s Day, in which Irish Americans are encouraged to celebrate their alcoholism. It’s not quite racist, but it verges on it – the implication is that Irish people are a bunch of drunks. Since it’s not actually genetic, I’m going to say it’s a celebration of a broad stereotype.
I was gonna say “Imagine if there was a day that celebrated some negative aspect of white culture, like Karen Day, or Colonialism Day.” but maybe that’s not funny.
I am way late to this party, but if an Irish mob mom wants her daughter to “sing something nice by Metallica,” I would think the obvious choice would be “Whiskey in the Jar.” OK, that’s a cover song, so only sort of “by” Metallica, but it’s an Irish song! (Sorry that it feeds into that idea of Irish as alcoholics, though!)
To Marcus’ “Colonialism Day,” isn’t that sort of Columbus Day??? So, yeah, not all that funny. I am aware of the history of it being a holiday Italian Americans wanted as an apology for the racism they faced in this country…but no one here in the Midwest celebrates it as an Italian holiday. I hear people in Boston might, but I am digressing. It feels like it has very much been a “Colonialism Day” and so it is good it is slowly but surely being replaced as a indigenous peoples’ holiday.
…me, i like sleepin’, especially in my molly’s chamber…
can’t believe that was the “boyz r back n town” guys, heh. thx erin!