to find this nativity play offensive

[soggy14]

Have just been to dss nativity. It was called something like "Merry Christmas from around the world" and had the Christmas story told with breaks whilst kids dressed as being from different countries came adn danced and said "Merry Christmas". I found ti offensive - in particular they had children from "Africa" all with tribal war paint on their faces doing what looked like a rain dance, also lots of Indians in saris saying Merry Christmas, and for America they had kids dressed as cowboys and Indians. It was rounded off with a song about the fact that in every tribe across the world people were celebrating Christmas. Am interested to know what anyone else would think?

[SantasENormaSnob]

Yabu

are you suggesting that only white people should be celebrating Xmas?

[ItsAHollyJollyTee]

I think you need to relax. It's a bunch of kids singing and having fun at Christmas.

Not everything is offensive.

IOW: Get over yourself.

[Mummy2Bookie]

Probably a bit tacky and bias ( not every American dresses as a cowboy, not ever African wears tribal paint etc) but I don't think I would find it offensive.

[NerdyFace]

[umiaisha]

I don't think many 'secular' schools put on a traditional nativity play anymore.

The format certainly wouldn't have bothered me.

[Blu]

Yes, a parade of ghastly stereotypes!

The idea of Christmas around the world - fine - DS's school did that one and he was a Spanish Dancer (in a routine choreographed by the Spanich Spanish teacher)- but I seem to remember that the 'African' bit was done by a Ghanaian choreographer and they had proper Ghanaian fabric wraps - but they did indeed have cowboys (not 'Indians') in the USA bit and some grass-skirted hula dancers for Hawaii.

Dodgy stereotypes - dodgy!

[Nickiename]

It sounds crap and pretty racist to me. Africans in war paint? Jeez. And of course it is also untrue, plenty of people around the world do not celebrate Christmas.

[SantasENormaSnob]

Imvho you need to get a life.

[nattivitycake]

I've always wanted to visit the country of "Africa"...

[GrimmaTheNome]

No, not offensive because its intention was to be nice and jolly and inclusive. Even though of course its culturally naive, every tribe doesn't celebrate Christmas, its not something I'd get bent out of shape about.

[LaWeaselMys]

I don't think it was done with malintent.

But you can always suggest a more suitable one next year.

Christmas is celebrated all around the world - I agree it would be better if they would look into what different countries actually do to celebrate instead of making it up though.

[nightmarebeforechristmas]

yabu

[Nickiename]

By the age of seven my son knew that Africa wasn't a country.

[SantasENormaSnob]

Nickiename, plenty of people around the world do celebrate Christmas though. It really isn't limited to Europe.

[Laquitar]

ffs!

[Blu]

Soggy - where is your dss school?
By Yr 2 or 3 when DS's class in S London did this the children with backgrounds in African countries would have been v aware and assertive about war paint!

[LittleWhiteSnowWolf]

I personally would not be offended, but sometimes naive stereotypes are offensive to those people who are being stereotyped.

So Soggy if you felt the play came across as racist and were offended by that YANBU.

[Nickiename]

"It was rounded off with a song about the fact that in every tribe across the world people were celebrating Christmas."
Not true.

[saffy85]

Not offensive as such but a bit about the stereotyping of certain places- they could have shown a little imagination with costumes.

One of the best christmas shows I watched was my little sister's. It was 12 days of christmas Australian style in honour them being the hosting nation of the Olymics that year (voted by the children). Again a few stereotypes like 8 surfers surfing, 9 kangeroos bouncing etc with all the kids dressed up to have christmas on the beach. They must have been freezing their butts off in that school hall!

[LemonDifficult]

YABU.

I think this is the kind of thing that offends people who are looking to be offended. It's naive but not offensive.

[MrManager]

Were you actually offended, or did you think someone else could have been offended?