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.

People are paid to chat on forums.
Putting down the British is exactly what they might do.

Stick to your beliefs, trust your instincts.

The key is before the incident.

All you have is an FB profile of the father. You would punish children for the parent’s social media?

It’s also not proscribed so anyone can be as much as it riles others.

Really stupid! Played right into the hands of the 'you can't even say you're English or you'll get arrested' moronic grievance cult..

Traditional culture dress like Gerri Halliwell?

Yes, that’s what we all wear, traditionally. 😂

So what. You’ve got it wrong. It was fine to wear it

Maybe as examples of the acceptable dress according to the school? One can assume had he said kilt that too would have been included in your list, or does it not feed your prejudice?

It was baiting.

Her dad is a TR supporter, they put her in that dress to make all of you inevitably angry that she’s “nOt aLLowEd tO be BritiSh.”

Same old, same old. Looks like it worked though!

How would you join in then if you don't come from an ethnic minority background? Would it be better if she culturally appropriated someone else's culture?

Despite your careful phrasing, what you are saying boils down to - if you’re not white, you’re not British. This belies a racist mindset.

Who is “going for the girl?”

What I’m getting from this is that the school basically wanted to make themselves appear like a nice little hotbed of cultural diversity and then promptly shit themselves when, shock horror, a load of white British kids turned up displaying the one symbol that can NEVER, EVER be seen to proclaim diversity - the Union flag - even though it’s the flag of FOUR different countries combined.

Also, the kid who turned up dressed as a farmer and was sent home… just WTF?! Presumably, had he turned up dressed as Idi Amin or Hitler, the same would have happened but who knows? We’re now so far down the rabbit hole that it might not be too daft to consider turning up to school in the garb of a despotic murderer of millions could be considered awfully clever from a historical awareness perspective (see also: Chinggis Khan or Ivan the Terrible).

I'm not angry about that and my views are opposite to TR. I'm annoyed by the downright stupidity of the school (and that it is emblematic of the high handed overstepping that academy chains do routinely now) and that they allowed themselves to be played like a fiddle.

It’s a dress, the school apologised. It’s posters wanting to punish a 12 year old girl due to something her father has on FB whipping it up, typically.

What is with the mockery?

The dress was a cultural moment. Sneering about it being “traditional dress” is just embarrassing.

Anyone repeating she has form, there’s something else to it, too tight too short, bad writing, she should be responsible for her father’s FB

Who would have thought a 12 year old in a spice girl type dress would do that to people.

And herein lies the problem. All cultures have things that aren't right in them or a history that contains not so savory things. It doesn't just belong to white people. Think about all the cultures across the world and time that outlaw gay people, kill gay people, oppress women, marry children, ban more than one child, use slavery and sell slaves ( and it's not just white people). Humanity is filled with horror and trash of all colours and creeds across time. Humanity is also filled with great things across all time and cultures. This 'only white people are bad 'narrative needs to stop, or reform and worse will be coming to a government near you.

I’m a farmer. Checked shirt Chelsea boots gilet jeans and over hanging tummy. We absolutely do have a particular culture which unites us up and down and across the UK. I can’t believe the mindset of this school. It’s actually very regressive

I think you mean betrays a racist mindset, and it really doesn't.

I don’t interpret the letter from the school as saying only cultural minorities can participate. It refers to celebrating difference, ie different from one another. That means everyone participates because British heritage is different from, for example, Nigerian heritage. I would have understood this as including everyone, regardless of difference, ie) Irish, Nigerian, Indian, Afghan, British, etc

I am flabbergasted. There are actually posts on here saying people using the phrase 'white British' are racist. I mean, how? Why? The UK is a white country, there's nothing wrong with that - but 'white British' is the opposite of racist because it specifically and deliberately contains the assertion that people who are British come in different skin colours.

He explained it in his speech at the Oxford Union (which I think is on YouTube). He grew up in Luton and his cousin was raped by the Muslim grooming gangs which made him want to expose the gangs and fight against the importing of more and more men from misogynist anti Western backward cultures. Being alot more careful about who you allow to live in your country seems eminently sensible to me (and probably the majority of people in all countries) but we are ruled by imbeciles.

Right. I agree that suggesting she “had form” is wrong but I didn’t see that. The only references to too tight or too short I saw were people sayings by what the thought BEFORE they saw the dress. Nobody has said that she should be responsible for her father’s FB-people are saying he should be. And I, at least, was saying that the writing isn’t good enough for a top of the class 12 year old.

it makes me laugh though that we were a couple of hundred posts in before anyone thought of BritPop. If I was sending my 12 year old into school as a Spice Girl in 2025 I’d make sure she was wearing a few more clues to her identity!

Oh, and for the avoidance of doubt, I would support the school not allowing ANY even vaguely political element in a child’s outfit. And it is an unfortunate fact that the Union flag and the StGeorge’s Cross have been hijacked. Why people are rolling over and letting this happen baffles me.

Yeah I agree.

They backed themselves into this corner, there were always going to be some parents who used it to make a point. Like this father has.

Again so what?

None of what you’ve posted is reason enough to punish the girl.

Betrays yes!

We’ll have to disagree then.