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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to think this Christmas play is a bit racist?

124 replies

CrikeyOReilly · 01/12/2015 00:09

This is the play my kids are in at school this year...

www.musiclinedirect.com/_data/samples/pdf/aba/script%20sample%20ali%20baba.pdf

Harmless 'Carry On' fun or worrying?

OP posts:
dodobookends · 02/12/2015 00:30

A bongo is either an antelope or a drum anyway, and little children will have absolutely no idea of any other connotations or draw any other conclusions from it. All panto-type scripts have absurd, downright daft play-on-word names in them.

caroldecker · 02/12/2015 00:36

Actual Simpson's quote "You can't beat a greased up Willie"

The ugly sisters are always played by men in panto.

MistressDeeCee · 02/12/2015 01:50

Bongo Bandits
Chicken Drums
Dusty Sandals

It sounds like a bad "Carry On" joke, who on earth thought up these cringeworthy character names? The play title is "off" too. Those who can't see it simply don't want to. I don't think its appropriate at all but I doubt that will bother many people, casual racism tends to be dismissed a lot

Morecats · 02/12/2015 22:56

Are you being unreasonable? No.

Characters making a mockery of a host of common Arabic names, let alone 'Gonk' and 'Sheik Yabuti'? Yes, pantos have silly names and adult jokes, but would I want my son making those adult jokes? Absolutely not, whether or not he 'gets it'. And those aren't silly names but offensive - at best teaching kids taunts for their classmates who happen to share the name, and that it's okay to take a culture and laugh at it. Torture jokes?!

It's completely inappropriate for a school to perform, and I can't believe the teachers think otherwise - I'd have been rightly disciplined in any of the schools I've taught in if I were to suggest it.

Mmmmcake123 · 02/12/2015 23:14

The Simpsons make fun of every nationality included on the show and takes stereotyping very far.
However, It has an abundance of American characters that are nearly all made fun of including most obviously homer the main American man, the police, the doctors, everyone working at the plant, ned and religion etc. Every character is an exaggeration.
The context has made it OK.
For this play I think they are off kilter as it is not equal and am afraid yes it just does seem a bit 70s

CrikeyOReilly · 03/12/2015 12:49

I think taking the piss out of yourself and your immediate neighbours is one thing, but taking the piss out of people who already suffer disproportionate racism is different. Especially in view of the current refugee crisis.

I do have a problem with Apu in the Simpsons, actually, but it's because Americans aren't sensitised to Indian stereotypes. They would never characterise an African-American like that.

OP posts:
GloriaSmellens · 03/12/2015 13:18

Yeah, it does seem a little close to the bone and taking the piss out of certain names. Also it seems.insanely long and detailed for a primary.school Xmas play! Are all bought in productions like this? At my school we always write our own (and usuay manage.to makenitnfunny without the racial stereotypes) so I don't know?

you could say the portrayal of the ugly sisters is homophobic (well at least anti trans.)

Ha, do you know.I was just thinking about this the other day! I wonder if eventually, the bloke playing the dame character will no longer be allowed?

molyholy · 03/12/2015 13:24

Crikey They are doing this play at my dd's school too. Wonder if it's the same school! My dd is only in year 2 though, so she is part of the cast just singing 2 songs. Haven't even thought about the script tbh. I suppose I will judge it on the night!

josephwrightofderby · 03/12/2015 13:37

I can only see a small portion of the script online, so I can't really judge but it would bother me. Particularly in the present climate. It's not the 'bongo' but the orientalism. Not just the taking the piss out of Arabic names, but the old-fashioned and stereotypical association with cruelty and tyranny.

Reminds me of this:

“No one today is purely one thing. Labels like Indian, or woman, or Muslim, or American are not more than starting-points, which if followed into actual experience for only a moment are quickly left behind. Imperialism consolidated the mixture of cultures and identities on a global scale. But its worst and most paradoxical gift was to allow people to believe that they were only, mainly, exclusively, white, or Black, or Western, or Oriental. Yet just as human beings make their own history, they also make their cultures and ethnic identities. No one can deny the persisting continuities of long traditions, sustained habitations, national languages, and cultural geographies, but there seems no reason except fear and prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that was all human life was about. Survival in fact is about the connections between things; in Eliot’s phrase, reality cannot be deprived of the “other echoes [that] inhabit the garden.” It is more rewarding - and more difficult - to think concretely and sympathetically, contrapuntally, about others than only about “us.” But this also means not trying to rule others, not trying to classify them or put them in hierarchies, above all, not constantly reiterating how “our” culture or country is number one (or not number one, for that matter).”
― Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism

JohnCusacksWife · 03/12/2015 13:39

Characters making a mockery of a host of common Arabic names, let alone 'Gonk' and 'Sheik Yabuti'?

Seriously, what's wrong with Sheik Yabuti?!

GloriaSmellens · 03/12/2015 13:49

Didn't there used to be a mumsnetter called Sheikyerbouti?

CrikeyOReilly · 03/12/2015 21:40

Whereabouts are you, molyholy? I am in the North West.

I think Sheik Yabuti is in bad taste but not as bad at the Sultan/Mustafa ones - for reasons I can't articulate.

OP posts:
molyholy · 03/12/2015 22:07

Me too crikey! Was porridge pot the christmas play at the kids school last year?

CrikeyOReilly · 03/12/2015 22:25

I don't think so but I might have erased it from my memory. It was Pirates of the Curry Bean one year and it lasted nearly two hours... (also desperately unfunny but not racist).

OP posts:
CrikeyOReilly · 03/12/2015 22:32

Oh I just checked ... it was Shakespeare Rocks last year. Not bad. Although I seem to remember a lot of cross dressing.

OP posts:
molyholy · 03/12/2015 22:33

Yes I know what you mean. Our school seems to think they are putting on an oscar nominated piece that does tend to drag. Once I've seen my dd, I just want to slope off Grin

BlueJug · 03/12/2015 22:35

Look as hard as you can for racism amongst people who really are not racist. The more you find the more "points" you get. The more people you denounce to the "Authorities", the better your rewards.

The trouble is the more I say it is not racist, the more you can say I AM in fact a racist - or a racism excuser. It's a no win situation.

Better to enjoy life and just make absolutely sure that you yourself treat everyone with respect and fairness. If we all make sure we are not racist rather than spend our time looking for others to accuse things would be better for everyone.

SiegeofEnnis · 03/12/2015 22:43

BlueJug, what possible satisfaction would the OP (and the considerable number of others on this thread) get from detecting racism among people who are 'really not racist', according to you?

I think you'd have to be pretty obtuse not to see how reactionary and stereotypical this play is.

Senpai · 04/12/2015 02:57

I do have a problem with Apu in the Simpsons, actually, but it's because Americans aren't sensitised to Indian stereotypes. They would never characterise an African-American like that.

Grin You're joking right? They're stereotyped in literally every movie featuring black people. It's rare to find a TV show or movie without them following black tropes.

ComposHatComesBack · 04/12/2015 03:55

Whilst it isn't quite doing 'Mammy' in blackface, it does seem something of a throwback to an earlier era.

It all seems in dubious taste and a bit laboured and I normally love a double entandre.

So much so, that a group of friends have just entered me in an innuendo competition.

Eebahgum · 04/12/2015 06:46

Still want to know how old your kids are - I didn't read it but I thought it looks hugely ambitious for a school production!

RhiWrites · 04/12/2015 08:54

Looks racist to me and I only got as far as the cast list page. Sorry you're not getting much agreement here OP.

On other firms I belong to I'm convinced everyone would say it's racist.

RhiWrites · 04/12/2015 08:55

*forums not firms

LittleLionMansMummy · 04/12/2015 09:11

I too am very uncomfortable with Apu from the Simpsons. However I also remember the episide of the Great British Book of Smiles - because Americans have a tendency to think British people have bad teeth! National stereotypes are commonplace - the French are arrogant and smelly. The Italians wave their arms around a lot and are overly expressive. Don't even get me started on the Americans. The difference is that if you have brown or black skin you're more likely to have already been subjected to a disproportionate level of stereotyping.

M1nniedriver · 04/12/2015 09:40

What is the difference between Apu and Willie? So it's okay to 'take the piss' out of white scots but as soon as you do the same with with a black/brown character its racist and uncomfortable Confused

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