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.

Where do I start....

The self flagellation (your own whiteness and Britishness) your own internalised hatred for your heritage.

Your ability to see Asian/black/gay = good
White/British = bad

You make blanket bad assumptions about British /white people (see your own posts)

And give all good examples of minority groups.

Its naive at best. (That's just for starters)

If you're waiting for your pat on the back for your virtual signal you'll be waiting a very long time. Because, those people are busy protecting and celebrating their own heritage and pushing their agendas (who can blame them ) whilst you're setting fire to your own self and dragging everyone from the same background down with you. You'll only realise when it's too late.

Bonsai is originated from China in Tang dynasty not Korea.

As assumed - nonsense.

I’m not ashamed of being white (?!), I just acknowledge that in some areas that affords me at least some privilege.

The British have made a lot of mistakes. If we hadn’t, we’d have less mess to clear up. That’s just fact.

Some British people are racist, and “bad.”

Those British people are quite easily recognised by their personas and behaviours online. They’re also a lot braver than they were previously, and a lot more able to be openly “bad,” because for some reason we’re all more accepting of it.

Courtney’s dad is one of them. He’s one of them because he wants his 12 year old child to speak at a far right event. Which however you dress it up, is Neanderthal level behaviour. You be racist, but leave your child out of it.

I don’t believe all gay, Asian or black people are “good” either. Some of them, really aren’t. Because they’re all people, and people are usually either good, bad or somewhere in between.

What you’ve done there is liked my dislike for far right activists and their supporters, with being a goody two shoes. I’m not, I’m just a reasonable human being who doesn’t think a culture, most of which wasn’t ours to begin with, is being “taken.”

You've drank the kool aid. You're rhetoric is straight out of the book. Lacks critical thinking and insight. I'm afraid you're extremely naive. And if you're willing to self flagellate and smear your own heritage like that, good luck, you'll be waiting a long time for your "back up" from the groups you're throwing your own self (and the rest of us) under the bus for. You've been brainwashed my dear. And the people you're metaphorically sticking a knife in yourself for will respect you less not more.

Drank the Kool Aid, how’s that for some British pride 😂

Super pleased I’ve been brain washed into not being a racist idiot.

Have a nice day “dear,” watch out for the foreigners!

You silly person

Once again just for you @SleeplessInWherever . So that the rest of this thread can see your empty "racist/foreigner hating" accusations towards me for what they really are.

I think we’re all smart enough to work out which “groups” you believe I’m throwing Britain under the bus for (😂) and have been “brainwashed” by.

Please, do keep going though.

Yes I agree!

For those who say they haven’t, fashion aside, would you walk down your local high street wearing a Union Jack t-shirt/top?

@SquishedMallowhow would you feel about a black/brown British girl wearing a Union Jack dress to represent her culture?

You are missing the destruction of the Enlightenment, the scientific method, reliance on objective research which is being dressed up as decolonization. I listened to a bien pensant blame all the problems of the world on European colonization. Not specified but problems in developing countries include poor attitudes to women, lack of education for women and some minorities, corruption, lack of political transparency, bending to demands for liberalisation of infrastructure (also linked to corruption). The attitudes of the likes of the Taliban have nothing to do with European colonisation, but are embedded in Afghan culture, and corrupt government is not a legacy of e.g. British rule.
Such European-bashing is liable to cause the things that hold everyone back (as listed) will not be addressed because it is seen as 'white colonization'. Leave it to China, which is filling the vacuum left by Europe (tho' sadly not the EU, who are behind demands to liberalise i.e. privatise, infrastructure), a polity that is not much into human rights or rights for women and everyone loses. The West, however flawed, does support human rights, women's rights, incorrupt governent and evidence based science (and supports the abolition of slavery) - and it is the West that is being destroyed.
That's why you are niave.

The West is being destroyed. Right, okay.

All of that sounds really interesting, but to be honest I’ve got stuff to do, and a life.

So wasting time worrying about “the Enlightenment” feels like a fairly catastrophic waste of time.

Not sure if you’ve noticed, you live in Britain which isn’t Taliban ruled.

Ok but what would you expect a British person with no other heritage to wear? Someone else mentioned most children have another heritage but I don’t and lots don’t. So what would we wear?

Ok but what would you expect a British person with no other heritage to wear?

Apparently a boy came dressed as a farmer and that wasn’t allowed either so I have no idea what would be allowed.

I think a better question would be how would the staff at the school have reacted if a black or brown British pupil had turned up in a Union Jack to represent their culture. Would they also have been sent home ? I think the point that @SquishedMallow was making has been lost in the rush to shout ‘racist’.

Bit too intellectual for you ?

Just a bit too nonsense, to be honest.

More likely bit too mansplainly for her.

The last census data claims that Britain is 81.7% White, and 83.4% either Christian or no religion.

But yes, we’re bEiNG tAkEn oVeR.

Boring. Boring and incorrect.

The West is being destroyed. That is hysterical nonsense.
More likely, the Asian superpowers are just more populous and richer and our hey days are somewhat over. We cannot dominate the thought and conversation forever.
Last time I checked, a lot of young talented Chinese people still want to come here because of our values and their Government seems OK with allowing them that freedom. The fact there is mixing with the growing Asian superpowers is a good thing. The more integrated and intertwined we are, the better, for all of us. Their own Governments will be on the way out in the end as well. Once you have educated women en masse and a higher standard of living, democracy is a given and autocracies become defunct. It is really that simple. It is also why we are resisting a return to misogyny and control via a far right, just because we have had a temporary blip in living standards. That is the real danger here. The poor and deprived are easy picking for Farage & Co. The fact that a whole lot of men are jumping on the bandwagon hoping to restore the patriarchy, more fool you!

One of the (many) things I find most irritating about the male far right rhetoric is the talk of protecting “our” women.

I am not “their” woman, and do not require their protection from this supposed threat.

It’s certainly a different question. I’m still interested in an answer to mine!

https://api.warwickshire.gov.uk/documents/WCCC-808477336-725

Demographics of Warwickshire. Definitely whiter than the national average.

Once you have educated women en masse and a higher standard of living, democracy is a given and autocracies become defunct

I find this astonishingly naive. In China proper, educated women are generally supportive of the system and don’t really care about democracy or human rights. They don’t care about Taiwanese independence, Uyghur autonomy or Tibetan freedom. Why would they? Their system has given them modernity on their terms and the children of elites flit back and forth between the West and China.

I don’t necessarily support their views, I am just saying that educated women don’t necessarily support these things, there is a cultural context.

“Their system has given them modernity on their terms and the children of elites flit back and forth between the West and China.”

What do you think those children are learning in the West? It takes a generation or two.