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?

Mogwhistle no council banned xmas, they just came up with a lameola festival to try and encourage people to go into the town centre.

By the power of google! No, no council has ever banned Christmas or the mention of Christmas.

Snap LaWeasel!

What they should have done instead is have a Festivus celebration, and offended everyone

(apart from Frank Costanza)

mogwhistle

You might find this enlightening.

Well I think it should be banned everywhere

What a charming turn of phrase the writer of that post has, MrM.

Not.

Btw I do know how to operate Google too but sometimes expressing an opinion without consulting it first is so 'living on the edge' don't you think? (a bit like taking part in a pub quiz and not using the tinternet on your mobile)

I know what you mean, OP.

I mean DD1's Christmas play was the '12 days of Christmas', and each class was something for the dinner table.

Shockingly, all the 'Christmas puddings' looked the same! Everyone knows that all Christmas puddings are different.

All the Jellies were strawberry - they do come in different flavours, you know.

All the Angels were white.

All the 'pigs in blankets' were pink!

The whole point of the stereotype is so that people 'get' what it is meant to represent.

You can hardly have 30 variations representing Africa for accuracy, can you?

Oh FFS there are child soldiers in Congo and Uganda and rape camps in Darfur. These are things to get het up about. As is Guantanamo Bay and the drugs cartels controlling huge parts of mexico and murdering thousands of people every year. Or the illegal occupations in Palestine, Afghanistan, blah blah blah..........

A bit of dressing up is not quite up there yet.

Have a drink and get some perspective why don't (some of ) you. Fuckinell.

Last time I was in Africa (for wedding of African friend) there were people wearing tribal type costumes of skins so dont see how this is offensive? Reckon OP overthinking it abit .

YABU . .how can such an innocent childrens xmas play be offensive. ? ? ? Ridiculous. . .
It was done in all genuine thought. . .not taking the piss or anything. . ..for goodness sake. . . . .you are totally OTT. . .

stereotypes might have irritated me a bit but not a huge amount. Do indian hindusand indian christians dress differently then?

YABU

I would expect my child's school to not promote stereotypes, and to be accurate. It's not a big ask.

YANBU

madwomanintheattic, I have a comment along similar lines. We have a large number of Christian Indians in our school community, and a significant number of the mothers wear saris.
I also have friends in Montana who live the cowboy dream and dress accordingly.
So sometimes you may have a constructive criticism to make, but to be offended without enquiring where they thought they were heading with their production and how they sourced the ideas is simplistic.

YABU.

Btw, did they specify each country or was it assumed from the dress?

Yes but if you were given this subject to act out and get tons of little kids to act . . how the hell would you go about it. . .In life there are stereotypes anyway. . is it such a crime. Children are hardly appreciating the subtlties of what is stereotype and what is not. . .they had fun doing the play surely thats important. . not whether you as mum thought it was stereotyped and 'offensive" !!!

"A bit like having kids dressed as the Hilter Youth saying Happy Christmas from Germany."

It's only a matter of time...
And the U.S depicted by people in those white robes and pointy hats - easy costumes to muckle up with an old sheet...

I wish this bloody word offended could be struck from the dictionary. People use it now as shorthand for everything. It seems you can be 'offended' by everything from a lack of corners on your cheese to someone criticising your shoes to a full on racial tirade. Please use a little originality of thought.

You saw the play and thought "hmm, not too sure about that". Fair enough I guess. But offended? Really? Fgs.

RockinRobinBird you have not made yourself clear. Do you think the OP is being reasonable or not?