What is wrong with describing someone as Asian?

[ProudAS]

It's what the person is and not being used in a derogatory manner. My colleague felt he had to whisper though when describing another colleague to me.

I fail to see how describing someone by their ethnicity is any different to describing them by their gender.

Curlew how much do you actually know about peoples beliefs?None of the muslim children in the class knew what the reason was they couldnt read it.Erm if its bad for a muslim child to read they wouldnt put it there for a child to pick it up.Same reason we didnt have bibles or sing songs about gods of any sort.

So if a muslim child shouldnt read about pigs if they are being respectful as a school to this they wouldnt have material available with something offensive to the child.

Whatever i say you wont understand it.The pig is just a character in a story,you tell me whats so bad about that?

I'm sure it doesn't say anywhere in the Koran that Muslims must not look at a pig or read about a fictional pig in a book. Some people take a far too extreme interpretation on what their book says. My bf is Muslim (Turkish) and he can get a bit silly about pigs and pork. I just tell him he's being daft.

I really dont know why its bothering you so much curlew that i thought it was excessive.Its not a media news story,its something from my life.

Yes, it is unreasonable, but only cos I have no idea if you really mean Indian or Oriental. (pretty sure oriental is offensive though )

Why are you ignoring the parallel with evangelical Christians and witches?
And why on earth shouldn't a school have a Bible?

We didnt have a bible in our class.We didnt have a koran either.Or a torah.Why am i ignoring it?honest answer is that ive read the sentence yet again and still not really bothered about it.Should i be questioning whether thats fabricated?

I must be explaining myself badly. What I am saying is that in my ds's class there were some children of evangelical Christians. If the class reading book had had witches in it, they would have been withdrawn from the class and wouldn't have been able to participate. Now I think that's bonkers, but I was happy to go along with it so that all the children could participate in class activities. Presumably the Charlotte's Web decision was the same? Do ou agree?

And I would be amazed if there were any state schools in the UK that didn't have at least one Bible- all state schools are nominally Christian..

No they are not all nominally christian.See you dont actually know what youre talking about,non religious based school,nothing biased towards any religion so therefore it did not have anything biased towards or singling out anyones religions.
no its not the same thats a prior discussed thing not a spur of moment decision by one person.

You think muslim parents would not have something to say about their children reading the bible in class?

"No they are not all nominally christian.See you dont actually know what youre talking about,non religious based school,nothing biased towards any religion so therefore it did not have anything biased towards or singling out anyones religions"

They are, you know. Under the 1988 Education Act, among other legislation. If you school was not having, for example, assemblies of a"broadly Christian nature" then it was not fulfilling its statutory duty.

We NEVER had a broadly christian assembly,no hymns,no songs about the lord,no prayers,nothing like that.i wasnt even in school in 1988.Itd be discriminating against other families religions,that is wrong.That is really wrong.Would you like your kids to be force fed a religion that is not yours?That would confuse a child brought up in their families religion.I wish you could see a school like this with your own two eyes.You dont need to quote me,i can read what I wrote its just above.

Are you saying you think parents would complain about a pig in a book and then choose a school that is broadly christian?

No, I object very strongly to religion being force fed to children. The fact remains that all state schools in the UK are nominally Christian. I don't like it, but it's true.

Interesting fact,glad they dont all actually do it or i probably wouldnt have met the people i have met in my life,made the friends I have made and had the chance to be able to understand and respect other peoples beliefs and where these beliefs come from.If there were more schools like that there would be a lot more understanding for other peoples beliefs and less hatred basically caused by people not understanding others way of life.

So why do you object to choosing a class reading book in a sensitive way?

I think we have been through this already?

Are you looking for me to say something?you just seems to go on and on at things.You dont agree with me,thats fine,thats allowed in life you having a different opinion to me really does not bother me.Does it bother you?

We had a Muslim contestant on one of our cooking competition shows here in Australia who agreed to cook pork. She said it was fine as long as she didn't eat it. The media and non-Muslims made more of a fuss about it than she did (ie show was insensitive etc). Not readinb Charlotte's web because it might offend Muslims shows that the concept of halal/haram is not really well understood - it's not as though you have to pretend that pigs don't exist and that others don't eat them. Only the most hardline fundamentalists will get upset by it and they will take offence to anything - like fundies in all religions.

Thats how i felt about the teacher,it was OTT.If it was something to adk the parents about first it wouldnt have been available.

I think the problem is that I don't know whether I agree with you or not! I can't decide now whether you think deciding not to read Charlotte's Web in the class was a good or a bad thing. You talk about how fantastic your school was is fostering understanding and toleration. Surely making sure that reading books were culturally sensitive was part of that?

Thats fine if you cant make your mind up,thats your right..i see it that its not being culturally sensitive its being OTT.Never had any other pig related issues(sounds silly but didnt kniw how to write it)if none of the kids brought up muslim identified it as wrong it seems to me its not a culture thing.I know muslim kids who watch peppa pig,we all learn about farm animals as kids thats no problem.its up to you what you think im not trying to convince you im just telling you why i think this because you wanted to know.

Sorry missed about,yes they did make the reading sensitive so thats why we didnt have bibles in class and no religious songs etc.

Basically muslims dont eat pork and a pig meat is unclean.