During my sophomore year I was enrolled in "English 240: Intro to Poetry." It was a small class in which most of the students knew each other fairly well. I soon got to know the guys who sat to my left and right - one was white and one was Asian. Before class one day, my Asian friend walked in, sat down next to me and took off his jacket to expose a bright green shirt with white lettering on it. At first, I didn't think anything of it.

Then I looked at what it said: "Drink like you're Irish."

With my blazing red hair, fair skin and freckles, I sat dumbfounded, wondering if I had the right to be offended. This student, who most likely is not Irish, was wearing a shirt that perpetuates an incredibly negative stereotype about my heritage.

Because I'm considered the white majority, am I somehow not worth political correctness? Don't I deserve the same respect and consideration as others?

I began thinking to myself: What if I wore a shirt that said, "Do math like you're Asian" or "Eat chicken like you're black?" The answer was painfully clear: There would be a riot, and I would lose a significant number of friends. All of that because I wore a T-shirt, just like my friend from English 240.

This is the paradox of American society: it's considered appropriate to mock some ethnic groups freely, while mocking others remains completely taboo.

St. Patrick's Day remains a yearly reminder of one of the most racist and offensive celebrations in our society. Last year, I boycotted the day. I drank; but I drank because it was Friday. I watched as my friends got absolutely obliterated, beginning the festivities at 8 a.m. or earlier.

I walked through the halls of South Quad Residence Hall, asking the drunken students who St. Patrick was, what he did and why they were celebrating the holiday. They responded with something like: "I don't know. What does it matter? It's an excuse to get drunk."

An excuse to get drunk? That's what St. Patrick is to students on campus? That's what Irish people are to students on campus? How is this fair?

It's not. But because Irish people are generally white, everyone is allowed to mock them and perpetuate one of the most vitriolic stereotypes in our society.

What's interesting is that the Irish weren't always seen as white. As Noel Ignatiev notes in his book "How the Irish Became White," both Irish and black slaves during the 18th and 19th centuries were essentially equal at the bottom of the social classes. The Irish were called "white negroes" and blacks were called "smoked Irish." The Irish were not the oppressors or part of the majority in America and neither were they in Ireland, where they lived under British dominance.

This brings us back to the present. As I sat in my ground level apartment and watched swarms of students in green clothing walk by - another aspect of Irish culture that I'm sure most students don't understand - I couldn't help but be a bit upset. I thought about the Notre Dame Fightin' Irish. I thought about paddy wagons. I thought about Irish car bombs. And then I thought about all of the dumb students buying into St. Patrick's Day, just like my ancestors tricked the Americans into doing centuries ago.

So keep buying my beer. Keep wearing green. Hell, keep calling me a drunk. Those are the people who look like assholes. As my mom wrote to me in a St. Patrick's Day card: "Take it easy. You've got nothing to prove. You're already Irish."

Chris Gaerig is an LSA junior.