School "Culture Day' - why didn't school see this coming?

[mids2019]

https://www.joe.co.uk/news/school-issues-statement-after-sending-girl-home-for-wearing-union-jack-dress-496690?fbclid=IwY2xjawLkEB9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHmXD4szLMfsqNubbE12kCn_Noe5jb2VGlNFVU0_IUIevHxzByCQ-5GXFN8F8_aem_P-q7I_yFCq82TY-Qr8mGdw

A local school state d a huge debate by sending a girl home on school culture day for wearing a union Jack dress. The question is why the school should have naively held an event which actually least a to more division than unity?

My daughter (white British) attended a similar event, for which she paid a pound, and dressed in jeans and t shirt. I asked how she had decided upon the attire and she stated 'well I don't have a culture'. I then had to explain that she did have a culture and even the jeans and t shirt were a product of fashion changes in western liberal society. We had a discussion about all the great products of white British culture, the music,science, results of the industrial revolution, shared experience in great wars, monarchy etc.

There is a white British culture but going into detail about this obviously brings into focus cultural divide and opens up divisive areas whether white British culture benefited from colonialism and past oppression.

Of course culture day probably was meant to highlight minority cultures and act to promote dress etc. from ethnic minorities as a welcoming inclusive gesture but by allowing all pupils to think about their culture we have to define 'white British' culture and by defining 'white British' culture schools have inadvertently started a discussion they didn't intend.

Yes it does. I’m not sure why even this small thing needs to be scrubbed out.

So many bonkers things, no flags, constant claims how rubbish it is, children can’t join in with their own culture even when asked to

When the news broke and I read the article, I kept expecting to get to the really good reason why the school did what they did, tucked away in the last paragraph that no one reads. It felt like clickbait. I was waiting for, it wasn't a dress up day, she should have attended in uniform, THAT'S why the fuss.

But nope. Just plain stupidity. What a stupid thing of the school to do.

Who are you to judge anyone on this thread, when you are trying to frame a white British child taking part in her school’s culture day as a “politically motivated stunt”.

I'm "wrong" that tea is consumed in places other than the UK?

ok then...

Also, there are cultural aspects to tea drinking. In the UK we tend to drink (black) tea diluted with milk and added sugar, we do this throughout the day as a staple of our diet, although it is often associated with breakfast. In other countries/cultures tea drinking is ceremonial, tea is prepared differently, there are special vessels for serving, other types of tea (e.g. green tea/fruit teas) are the norm. In the USA there is a big 'iced tea' culture. Bubble tea is now a thing, appropriated from Taiwanese culture. So the idea that there are no cultural aspects to tea drinking just because other cultures do it is to misunderstand 'culture'. Other cultures also have clothes and food, but how those are worn/made/presented/designed/consumed constitutes the cultural aspect.

A cup of tea with milk feels very British to me

Yes, the milk part is undeniably British.

Because we're in Britain? And what about the boy with the Welsh flag?

We are supposed to be ashamed of British culture. We must not appropriate the culture of others, accept it and celebrate it (of course that's great), however, we aren't allowed to celebrate our own. To some all the history of Britain is bad and some hate the UK and the West in general so much. You are right though, Reform will use this and it will lead to greater division in the future. We should celebrate all, including British culture.

As if we are questioning whether tea is a British culture staple. What on earth is going on 😂

That's really sad.

Courtney’s father is a TR supporter.
Courtney’s father took the situation to the press.
Courtney has (allegedly) been asked to make her speech at a TR rally.
No misinformation there.

This is horrific!

If the school had allowed the girl and her other peers to celebrate being English, then no one would have gone to the press, and nothing would have happened.

Your point is moot.

W T actual FUCK?

I hope the school explained how they dealt with this incident.

How exactly were they setting her up? The Union Jack is iconic and like it or not it is very much part of British culture.

There is no evidence that you can put forward that the school should have acted as it did over a dress and speech.

The media was after the event. When the school acted it was simply a girl in a Union Jack dress, unless you can prove otherwise.

That’s not what you’re doing, though. You are minimising something that many people see as a large part of their culture.

You are saying that drinking a specific beverage cannot be part of a culture, because consuming that specific beverage in a specific way is so common throughout the world, that it is no different to walking or eating.

That’s simply not accurate, so yes, you are wrong.

I’m not really sure what the school expected the white British children to do. The girl’s costume was great. As a parent of children of mixed ethnicity, I find schools aren’t great at truly celebrating diversity and it always feels like tokenism.

Exactly. The pp has the timing out.

And this is basically the culmination of years of dissing British culture and history.

Britain is great, British history is great and we urgently need to stop the revisionism expounded by useful idiots.

In Britain we need to ensure everyone living here is part of British and local cultures and traditions. Schools and workplaces should celebrate these.. Schools should have British culture lessons, talking about our myths, legends and traditions more. We should have big celebrations to mark St George’s day.,we should be taught to be proud of our heritage and history. We should be encouraged to be more patriotic. If you come to live here you should have to explain how you will integrate into UK life. If you reject British morals and values you should be asked to leave

British culture is largely an embarrassment.

What a sad attitude @BananaCaramel . Where do you live?

Where I live we have a really rich local culture, with each town having its own festival, traditional music, food etc. It's certainly not embarrassing.

Her speech was positive and inclusive. A lot of people are talking about the situation following the articles and obviously this will include people with far right views but her speech had nothing inflammatory in it. Unfortunately the schools behaviour feeds the far right narrative that white British people are not allowed to be proud of their country and culture. TR will have seen the articles and jumped on the bandwagon.

I did not say it "can not be part of their culture". On the contrary. I just don't really get why it's frequently brought up as something unique to the British, when it evidently is no such thing.

They should have stopped after mentioning the actual cultural references and not gone on to moan about UK culture being ignored etc.

This is what happens when middle class White liberals have been allowed to cast their mealy mouthedness about being White and British upon most institutions.
This phenomena does not facilitate socio economical progress for those who are not of White British heritage and most definitely not for those who are not White.

Hence this phenomena merely being a do nothing "safe space" for White liberals who love to claim that they are not any of the "ists" whilst sacrificing none of their privilege or having any of their " we are less " ist" than those flag waving working class Brits over THERE" superiority complex scrutinised.

All the while mostly living far more " White" lives than poorer Whites who are the White people who integrate with non Whites by virtue of can't do anything about it proximity.
Mainland Europeans do not suffer from this hypocritical complex.
But that same British liberal cohort feels superior to those same Europeans , visiting a vis " race relations". Again , often without analysis of Empire, the socio economic reality of non Whites in Britain ( especially as no group more than Black males of Caribbean heritage have assimilated into the " multicultural " narrative , with no socio economic benefit for them or the heritage group that they come from).

That the school could not explain why they sent this girl home and that a poster claimed that her parents set her up ....these are signs that these jelly backed people are not fit to even think that they.are any type of " ally" to anti racism in the UK.

And if one is non White and gets triggered at the sight of a Union Jack , that's some self hate going on that no amount of White hand holding can guide you out of.

The whole White Man's Burden of it all would be cringe inducing if I did not come from a kiss my teeth/ cut my eye heritage.

I could not tolerate having that specific type of middle class, non " ist" , liberal White Brit in my outside of work orbit .

Nothing worse than a White person who feels ( or pretend feels) guilty for any and everything said to be done in their name.

Especially as this " feeling" never translates into humility, funnily enough.