No dogs or Irish allowed?

Eunice.kk

Have you ever heard about that?--"No dogs or Irish allowed!", which made me think about like "No dogs and Chinese allowed!""Work as hard as a dog!"...
& ?, w) M; O. c0 ?/ J3 n( I# d! jWhat do you think? Is it rude?Is it a kind of discrimination?
I discussed with a group of professional guys today since I remember somebody said "Work as hard as a dog!" is not rude, but they told me that--Although dogs are cute creatures in this world, and they are our good/honest friends,  when you mentioned like the situations above, it's 100% rude.

小曲

原帖由 Eunice.kk 于 2008-3-12 00:36 发表
Have you ever heard about that?--"No dogs or Irish allowed!"...

+ J9 P( \' q1 N4 y# A
Where did you see/hear this? at a door of a restaurant?

織紗千影

It's mean!

sweetspot

It's not rude.  It's just a metaphor trying to put a measurement on how much harder one should work. =)

Eunice.kk

No dogs or Irish allowed" --It's so mean and rude, but it's true in the immigration history. I heard it from an Intercultural Awareness presentation. I felt shocked as well. Therefore, I did a little bit research:
# i* ^( j6 @! X  @; I "Most Irish who came to the United States were fleeing poverty, starvation, and abuse, rather than seeking freedom and prosperity. Sadly, America was not exactly the land of opportunity for many, if not most, of these refugees. Antebellum American thought described the Irish as "low-browed, savage, groveling, bestial, lazy, wild, simian [apelike], and sensual.” Throughout the United States, the Irish were looked down upon to the degree that a black slave was considered to have more worth than an Irishman. Signs such as “No Irish Need Apply [or NINA]” or “No dogs or Irish” were common as Americans expressed their immense dislike for the ragged immigrants."
Usually, if we want to describe somebody who works very hard, we can say"busy as a bee/beaver. Hardworking, very industrious, as in With all her/his activities, eg. She/he is always busy as a bee, or she/he's busy as a beaver trying to finish painting before it rains. The comparison to beavers dates from the late 1700s, the variant from the late 1300s. "