AIBU?
To think racist stereotypes shouldn't feature in a school play?
LadyFuckrington · 11/07/2015 16:04
Went to see dd in her play last night and was pretty horrified by the 'Indians' dressed in feathered headgear and talking like um how.
I sat there with my mouth open because it had shades of 'blacking up' and just didn't sit well with me.
Am I being ridiculous? Dd was a cowboy in the play, which was set in the Wild West and they all did terrible American accents, but the whole pidgin English representation of the native Americans speech made me wince. That and the fact they were listed in the flyer as Indians.
Aibu? I feel like complaining to the school really but I'm not well at the moment and can't tell if I'm overreacting.
Dawndonnaagain · 11/07/2015 16:26
You can't actually breathe anymore without the PC brigade over reacting. The term "professionally offended" comes to mind.
The term fuck off comes to mind.
YABU. Many native Americans refer to themselves as Indians.There is no need to be offended on their behalf!
My daughter refers to her wheelchair as her spaz chariot. Doesn't give you the right to do the same.
OP Of course it was racist and you really should be having words with the school.
CamelHump · 11/07/2015 16:31
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GoodbyeToAllOfThat · 11/07/2015 16:33
Yes but you won't find "spaz chariot" in official documents regarding wheelchairs. You will find the term Indian used officially in America though.
I'm American and I'm pretty certain people who know better use the term "Native American". "Indian" is, after all, a mistake of geography made by the colonists who went on to exterminate 20 million "Indians".
Dawndonnaagain · 11/07/2015 16:45
Yes but you won't find "spaz chariot" in official documents regarding wheelchairs. You will find the term Indian used officially in America though.
Funny that, because despite doing my Phd dissertation on the demise of the native american, it's not a term I ever found, although admittedly, it was over twenty years ago.
TheHumourlessHarpy · 11/07/2015 16:52
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TheHumourlessHarpy · 11/07/2015 16:53
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ghostyslovesheep · 11/07/2015 17:05
blimey why not just go the whole hog and call them redskins 
seriously yabu - there are always people who try to diminish casual racism and sexism - often they are the casual racists - I would complain
that said I complained about the 'native black man in a grass skirt' with a bone through his nose painted on the school nursery wall - nothing happend
ElkTheory · 11/07/2015 17:09
BTW Indian is fine, as long as it wasn't Red Indian (horrible). Indian and Native American tend to be used interchangeably in the US. In Canada the term First Nations is often used.
But teaching children that Indians actually speak in that old Hollywood style fake broken English is utterly unacceptable and should be challenged IMO.
Lurkedforever1 · 11/07/2015 17:12
I think the difference in being a 'red Indian' is that for lots of the children I know, including my own, being a red Indian is something great, outside the ordinary and beyond any daily experience of different cultures. Whereas being any colour or religion that is reasonably common in the uk, isn't unusual, good or bad, or something viewed through rose tinted glasses as a game, it's just everyday and irrelevant. Like if I told her and her friends the race/religion/colour of my work colleagues they'd think I'd gone mad, whereas if I said I worked with an Eskimo or red Indian they'd be fascinated. And of course as far as comparing it to 'blacking up' to say act uncle toms cabin out goes, no child would ever think the slave trade was something to admire or relevant to how they view 'black' today.
Not saying that makes it ok or in a place where native Americans live today it would be acceptable ( because then they'd be a normal modern part of daily experience) but for most of the UKs kids I suspect that's not the case.
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