Is it offensive or am I being silly?

[CocaColaaa]

Just a quick one but NC for this as I guess its outing.

My childrens school are doing world book day and the “theme” is peter pan, its given some suggestions of characters you can dress up as and one is tigerlilly. I was thinking of chosing that one for DD as I hate all of the tinkerbell dresses but ive heard its offensive to dress up as certain things. Native americans being on of them. Is it offensive or am I being silly? Why oh why do they have to do themes and not just let people pick their favourite book characters 😩

and we're still ignoring how offensive the books is against the brits.

You’re quite right. Why won’t anyone think of the injustice against those poor rich white people . We need to accept rich white people are victims in history as well. So repressed. Seen such horrors. I might dress my kids up as Tim Nice But Dim next time they need a fancy dress, just to show I appreciate poshos as people.

Delighted to see that a PP enjoyed the Little Black Sambo books! My kids loved them.
Sambo was a clever hero of an Indian kid who outwitted a bunch of ferocious tigers, turned them into ghee and ate them on a massive pile of pancakes. The story was written by an English woman missionary, based in India, who was giving kids back home in England an exciting tale from the exotic Empire. Sambo certainly wasn’t a caricature negro slave, as people nowadays seem to think, when they criticise without even reading the story.

Actually a quick Google will show that all so called Native American Halloween and dress up costumes are considered to be offensive to many Native Americans, that includes Pocahontas costumes too. They all keep the stereotypes alive, and there are other issues with the Disney Pocahontas film that I won't go into right now.

Unless there are genuine Navajo present, I doubt very much, that a small child dressed as Native American would offend .

It’s neither. It’s a little girl dressing up as a character in a book, that’s all.

Mind you there may be Cherokee, or even Apaches. Some schools are very pc with staffing choices.

So is it okay to dress as golliwogs if there are no black kids in the school?

Or is OK for a black kid to dress up as a golliwog?

Hmm! It’s a bit rough when you’re told your opinion doesn’t matter. And I said acknowledged not celebrated. Good call, BasiliskStare. :-) Thankfully my children are far too old for WBD, my grandchildren are not my responsibility, and my friends are a tolerant, multicultural bunch who don’t see offence in everything others do. What a privileged life I lead!

Gollywogs are not okay. Tiger Lily is not okay.

Are the Navajo the only Native Americans?

Also, yes we have very few Native Americans in the U.K but that's even more reason to be cautious and respectful because they have few voices here to tell us what we're doing wrong. There should be more awareness of Native American issues though because British colonialism had an enormous and negative impact upon the indigenous people which continues to this day.

XPost with ShowMeTheKittens.

DoneLikeAKipper

spectacularly missing the point!

ShowMeTheKittens, I live in Liverpool. My Grandfather was from the Blackfoot tribe. He joined the merchant navy and met my GM.

I'd be offended that the image in older books etc is still being perpetuated.

Pickledlimes , I don't think me or my family have ever been asked, as part of a survey.

Don't make assumptions about heritage based on skin colour.

Is it done to insult? No.
Do you have to care about randoms who like to be offended? No.

Can't she be one of the mermaids?

I think you need to get DD into an all black/grey ensemble OP and she can be Peter's shadow, maybe add a few big stitches from when Wendy has to sew it back on. Because whatever our ethnicity, indigenous culture, background, our shadows look the same. Surely no one can be offended by a shadow? (Stands back and waits to be corrected)

spectacularly missing the point!

Guess I’ll join in with every other person on this thread who have completely missed the point on why dressing up like TigerLily is not ok.

Surely no one can be offended by a shadow?

so you insinuate that black people can only be followers and be pale copies of a white one and are not allowed a real existence and are not part of the real world?
how insulting is that!

-you're welcome

My Grandfather was born in 1902, in Canada.

It was the only way to make reasonable money amd travel, for a NA.

It meant that to his small family, thanks to the holocaust they were put through, that they'd never see the children and Grandchildren of his. Family was everything to them.

There were letters and they seemed pleased that we wouldn't suffer bigotry and poverty (ha!), but it was still heart breaking for his Mother and Sisters.

DoneLikeAKipper
you completely misunderstood the post about how offensive the story is against brits for a start.

Haven’t missed the point at all, just don’t agree.

I am aware that Little Black Sambo is supposed to be South Indian hence the tigers, but he's still a harmful stereotype regardless of any supposed positive qualities that he has. Also written by an English missionary is hardly a recommendation considering the harm that many missionaries have caused.

StinkyCandle, but the stereo type in the book, was done to insult and portray why it was OK to not see them as equal.