It's hard to watch Anderson Cooper's giggle fit over Buffalo's Dyngun Day celebration. Just a quick note--it's not celebrated by the entire city at all. It's not well-known even locally, unlike the Italian Festival, St. Patrick's Day, or even Juneteenth Festival (emancipation from slavery heritage week for black Americans)
I only learned about the celebrations until I moved pretty close to the heart of Polonia here and work about three blocks from the Polish Cadets Hall.
Basically, Catholic Poles in this very small section of Buffalo celebrate the day after Easter with parties featuring a LOT of drinking. Boys/men squirt women/girls they like with water guns. The women/girls flirt back by hitting the guys with pussywillows.
There's a parade. People dress up in traditional Polish attire. Lots and lots and lots of Polka! More than anything, it is a silly celebration. This is apparently the definition of Dyngus--not a stupid person but a person who acts stupid, silly, and makes people laugh. No matter, Anderson Copper was essentially forced to apologize for his giggle fit and calling Dyngus Day stupid, when laughing and stupidity is the purpose of the pre-Christian holiday.
The rage still goes on, reignited by Donn Esmond's editorial in support of Cooper. Really, it's tough to see how Cooper's laughter in this context is insulting to a "sacred" tradition or Poles.
If only we could go back to the 1970s. Americans were just tipping their toes into understanding each other, our beliefs, culture, religions. Everything was raw and on the surface but tolerated because at least we were talking. We recognized that stereotypes existed. All in the Family was an example of this toe tipping. But at least there was honesty. It could have progressed to genuine understanding but somehow got hijacked by political correctness. Not that there should have been a racial/ethnic/religious stereotype festival but at least it had honesty, brutal honest at times. How can people resolve conflicts when they can't openly discuss them and blame is assigned to only one party?
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