@judochop This is what Americans do to these type of celebrations. It is just like Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican’s laugh at how we celebrate it. About the religious part of the day, another thing America does, think bunnies and chocolate and painted eggs, Santa and decorated trees. Oh yeah…Jesus’ birth resurection, almost forgot.
It is very NYC to me for a group to celebrate a day to represent them, a day of pride. NYC continues to have parades, like the Puerto Rican day parade, Gay pride, and more.
Your point is reasonable about watermellon and chicken regarding black history month. Did you see that people were all upset about a menu created at NBC for black history month, everyone was in an uproar, and then it was found out the woman who planned the woman was black. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/04/nbc-serves-fried-chicken_n_449821.html
Now, yesterday on my facebook an Irish friend said that she had troble finding a beef stew recipe without beer in it for St. Patricks day. Another friend of hers, Irish, got all defensive saying the Irish are not all a bunch of drunks. Oy. I can understand why she might be defensive, but seems better just to fun of the day andnot get caught up in the details maybe.