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.

They can’t even see how racist they are being. Yes the level of intelligence IS the problem!

You can claim whatever you like cant you? You're British, you're Asian (not sure what country), you're also from your mum and dad's culture, you a female (or male who knows), you're an age, you may have hobbies etc etc

These are all our cultures arent they.

I would probably turn up in some 80s get up as Ive never grown up, pop music in the 80s was instrumental around the world, thats British culture to me.

No I personally wouldn’t use the phrase “black British culture” either.

There have obviously been black immigrants who have brought elements of various different cultures to the U.K. That’s not the same as claiming some kind of homogenous “black British culture” exists.

Yep - child may well be entirely innocent here, but the dad seems to be besties with Tommy Robinson from his FB posts, and it’s entirely possible the school knew this and that has influenced their sending her home.

Her dad has posted that she will be giving her speech at a Tommy Robinson rally in London in September, so make of that what you will. I suspect there is a lot of stuff the school is aware of which the media hasn’t reported.

We have a similar day at our school which I’ve always found slightly tricky to navigate as a family who is 100% English.

It’s hard not to feel that representing English culture on a day that is celebrating international culture feels a bit like the “when do we celebrate International Men’s Day?” whining on IWD. However opting out of participation doesn’t feel in the spirit either. We’ve been given the option of celebrating a culture other than then our own but the cultural appropriation is a whole other can of worms.

When I get moaning from the DC that it’s “not fair” as thry have nothing to celebrate I point out that it’s important to recognise and celebrate the diversity of background and cultures in our community and that people from different backgrounds often feel unwelcome or sidelined or abused and this is a small thing to help redress the balance.

I have sent my DC into school in homemade St George’s flag t-shirts however and would have been absolutely furious if they’d been sent home.

Something that represents their culture of course. The UK seaside springs to mind, jolly holidays, depending on where you are in the country historical figures from the UK, cheese rolling, morris dancing, 'obby 'orses, clog dancing, flags of any of the UK countries or the Union Jack, food stuffs, musicians, the list is endless

You think a child has legitimately been sent home from school because of their parents political beliefs. You don’t see anything problematic in that….

If that is true (can anyone verify?) then the
mystery is suddenly rather less of a mystery…..

She was wearing a Union Jack. It was deemed unacceptable.

The farmer being sent home is particularly mad!

I find it hard to imagine there were any 12 year olds in full burkas!

Seriously, somebody turned up in this did they, and it was all fine?

edited as link removed, new link reposted

The point has been spectacularly missed. It wasn’t a ‘CULTURE’ day, it was a ‘DIVERSITY day’, which is obviously to celebrate differences in cultures. Sticking to British as a theme is the opposite of celebrating diversity. It’s sending out the message that you are unwilling to celebrate other cultures.

At my DCs school it was very much expected that you would wear the national costume of grandparents. My dc found it a stressful day being in the minority not having an obvious national costume. It absolutely created a sense of ‘other’, for a child who did have parents/ grandparents from another country not to wear their national dress would have been a conscious decision to reject this and they would have had to justify their decision to their peers. I don’t know how else to say it but it really was a day where white people (the minority in this school) were in jeans (and the occasional kilt) feeling left out and brown people were looking fabulous in colourful celebration clothes feeling like they were at a party. It was stark.

I would think that would make the school less likely to send her home, and more likely to go “yes very nice flags dear. Oh your dad thought we might not like them? I’m not sure why, but you can tell him it’s nice of him to be concerned but he has no need to worry, they’re fine.”

Especially as I’d be very surprised if there weren’t other flag based outfits (for various countries) that day, as it’s easy.

If all that Tommy Robinson stuff is true then I'd argue the school would have been better off ignoring it rather than egging her dad on.

Her parents did nothing wrong, neither did the girl. That's the point

To me it sounds like a case of any culture but a U.K. one being worth celebrating. Goes with the territory of any hint of patriotism being fine from any other culture, but sneered at or deprecated within ours. Reasons given often include ‘colonial history’ but other European countries certainly have ‘colonial history’ and don’t have this taboo re flags.

So Jewish people can’t be British?

But more importantly, our culture is its own melting pot of other cultures - pubs and curries and fish and chips and football and pop music and Christmas and royalty and a polite stiff upper lip. You might be able to point to how we’ve imported different aspects, but together it is our culture and I find it really weird that so many PP seem to hate it but still live here. Go find somewhere that suits your culture better, I’d rather live alongside immigrants who embrace and support British culture than British born people who think they’re better than everyone else in the country.

ETA not sure why but am quoting the wrong PP!! Was meant to be in reply to the PP which stated the parents were dicks for allowing her to wear the dress…

But why were they dicks? The union jack is the flag of the union - is is a blend of Scottish, Welsh and English flags and symbolises all the historical events/battles that we experienced as individual nations before uniting as under one umbrella and a single monarch. It is symbolic of the world wars we have stood side by side in, welshman, scot and englishman to protect our shores from Hitler. It represents the united effort when fighting alongside allies in ww1 and 2. And yes, it represents our colonial past - not all of which was bad but how do we learn from it, understand the mistakes we made without acknowledging and discussing it?

The fact that we are supposed to be ashamed of our union, fearful and embarrassed to wave our flag, that parents are considered ‘dicks’ for allowing their kids to sport any symbol of national pride is, frankly, quite tragic. I remember the jubilee street parties, Diana and Charle’s wedding when the streets and civic buildings were awash with them. Now we are not allowed to demonstrate any pride in out British culture. It’s appalling that we are in this position.

We obviously do have British culture which has been our main export into the world for many years. I’m not sure about ‘white’ British culture as a term tbh, British culture is perfectly fine and inclusive to anyone who is British.

Did you know bonsai isn’t a Japanese art but originally Korean? The idea that only the nasty colonial British appropriate from other cultures needs to stop tbh. It doesn’t do anything for cohesion and sneering at your own culture is just tedious posturing.

I agree that would probably have worked better, just suggesting there was likely more background to sending her home than some kind of hatred of Britishness.

So the MOBO awards? Should we not have that?

It was very sad to see her jumping up and down with excitement about getting involved with Tommy Robinson.

I hope she has someone looking out for her.

It was definitely a culture day.

Why white British culture? We have had immigration going back pre A.D.

But on the other hand I agree the school should have allowed all British children* *to have been able to wear British cultural clothes of their choice.

British culture would probably be defined as drunken hooligans! That’s how many countries view us due to the awful behaviour of people on holiday and at intertribal matches!