Parents at Condit Elementary School in Claremont, California have forced the kindergarten to bar children from dressing in traditional Thanksgiving outfits as based on racial or ethic stereotypes. After 40 years of this tradition, no one Pilgrim hats, Indian outfits, or bonnets.
Michele Raheja, a mother of a kindergarten student and part Seneca insisted that “It’s demeaning. I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history. Raheja is an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, and convinced educators that such displays were “dehumanizing” her daughter’s ancestry.
I must confess that I do not understand why the school would yield to this objection. Thanksgiving is portrayed as a celebration of cooperation between the settlers and Native Americans. The settlers were not analogous to “Nazis” as Raheja suggests. There was cooperation between the races and this celebrates that positive element. There is no question that the Native Americans were displaced and treated badly after the first settlers. However, this tradition recognizes the contribution of Native Americans as part of our culture.
Sometimes educators need to take a stand and educate parents. Our society is gradually being homogenized to squeeze out any symbol or expression that can be interpreted by anyone in a dark or offensive way. It is better to allow costumes and teach kids about authentic dress and traditions of both pilgrims and American Indians. We live in a pluralist society and we do not value that pluralism by preventing people from depicting the difference cultures or require every display to first satisfy those who claim to be from an affected group. Pluralism requires a bit of tolerance from all groups and no one should have a monopoly on how and when their culture is depicted.
For the full story, click here.
MASkeptic..I’m not surprised, nor am I a fan of Whoopi. She makes stupid comments/statements on The View. But she is a prominent figure in the black community.
Okay, well she’s not all that bad. Just that comment really irked me. I did like her in “Corrina Corrina”, she was great and it’s a cute movie.
calipennsylhattan:
“as to free speech, all macroscopic considerations aside, I will never, ever censor something I say because I’m afraid it will offend someone.”
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That’s a recipe for freedom — and solitude.
Jonolan,
I wonder how it is that you always seem to know what is and isn’t American. Where do you stand on the Lagers versus Ales question? The early colonists and “Founding Fathers” would have brewed English style ales, but once they were introduced lagers became and remain THE American beer.
My beer fixation aside, how exactly do you determine what is and isn’t American? There has been a struggle from the earliest formation of the country as to what sort of government and culture the country should possess.
White settlers de-humanized, killed and wiped out almost all of the native american tribes after landing here. That’s not an opinion- it is an observable fact with data and records to prove it.
So yes- the watered down history we teach children is dehumanizing, and ethnocentric.
Does eliminating school plays and student expression the answer? Hardly. But teaching students versions of the Thanksgiving story from the viewpoint of the Native Americans as well as our European Ancestors would take too much work and time.
So lets just get rid of the play. Yikes…
This is what society always does. A plane collides into a building- let’s get rid of plastic water bottles at airport security check points. Bandaid solutions.
Cool blog btw.
Every time I read a story like this, I’m constantly reminded of Phil Hartman as ‘The Anal Retentive Chef’
Welcome to Farenheit 451. We have to respect other people’s RIGHT to their opinions, not the opinions themselves.
Mespo said:
“I would not let individuals serve a veto on free speech absent some showing of the likelihood of general offense or incitement to violence.”
Hopefully we would never let any one person or group veto free speech, unless (and this is my ONLY exception), the speech itself was a direct incitement to violence. I don’t think ‘offensive’ is enough justification, remember you also have the implied right to not listen when someone says something you disagree with.
Sally said:
“Whoopi Goldberg said it’s okay for black people to use the “N” word.
I hope you’re not surprised when I say that ‘Whoopi is wrong’. Either everything is fair game for everyone or nothing is for anyone.
as to free speech, all macroscopic considerations aside, I will never, ever censor something I say because I’m afraid it will offend someone. That’s the whole point of the first amendment, and to respect the right of others to speak freely you’re going to have to be prepared to get upset now and again. deal with it.
being a nice person is one thing, but I am loathe to reject words or phrases simply because another group takes offense. when you legislate nice manners the path to outright political repression becomes much too short.
jonolan:
“The Left – and obviously Smari – will never understand that catering to whims of minorities at the expense of the majority is more tyrannical than the converse – though both are bad.”
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I find this much less dangerous than catering to the whims of the majority who have more brutal ways to enforce their orthodoxy. Ironically, it appears the majority is acceding to the wishes of the minority which I find refreshing, conciliatory, and very humanistic. Seems the only complaints are those away from the situation who know the least about the players involved. Maybe we should let people work out their own rules of etiquette and avoid busy-body-ism, if that is a word.
a) Thanksgiving is, without doubt, the single greatest day of the year.
b) These objections are silly, in my mind, and I’m very much inclined to agree with the original post. Furthermore, I can see the result of complaints such as Ms. Raheja’s being the gradual irrelevance of Native American traditions in the eyes of school children. What if, instead of getting to dress up as Indians during the Thanksgiving season (to make it fun) and learning about their traditions and people, the whole thing is simply dismissed as “demeaning?” Well then no one learns anything, and Indians are still just that group of people that wore feathers and were screwed by broken treaties.
I dressed up as an Indian for Thanksgiving when I was a child. I also learned a deep respect both for their practical knowledge of survival as well as their culture. That’s the whole point. Calling it off because it’s “disrespectful” is insular and counterproductive. Rather, we should be ensuring that that cultural teaching goes along with the fun of the dress-up.
MASkeptic….
Whoopi Goldberg said it’s okay for black people to use the “N” word. Not to mention, Chris Rock is always telling “black jokes”
These are just kids in costumes. How is it any different than a child dressing up for Halloween?
MAskeptic:
“Would you consider it acceptable for someone to tell off color jokes if Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson gave them the go ahead? I’ve frequently heard them referred to as ‘leaders of the African American community’.”
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If the consensus was that a particular joke was not offensive to African-Americans, then I would have no problem with it. I would not let individuals serve a veto on free speech absent some showing of the likelihood of general offense or incitement to violence.
Pretty soon they’ll declare Thanksgiving to be a “hate crime.”
The Left – and obviously Smari – will never understand that catering to whims of minorities at the expense of the majority is more tyrannical than the converse – though both are bad.
OK, some Indians are bothered by Thanksgiving for no reason other than it celebrates the colonizing of America. Fair enough, but why should we bow to their will? Why should the majority – who enjoy the holiday – be silenced so as not offend these minorities with our celebrations? If the mere sight of such things bother Raheja, she should think about moving to Reservation where she won’t be accosted by the sight of “invaders.”
Here, I found another blog that spoke very well about this subject.
http://www.reznetnews.org/blogs/red-clout/finding-new-ways-celebrate-thanksgiving-24760
This is a hard issue in many ways as it’s true that this celebration is only marginally accurate from an historical perspective. Nevertheless these children are 5 and jazzed up about wearing the costumes and having a party. They are just having fun together and as Sally points out they aren’t malicious. Any moral hazard to participating in this party seems low to no.
Thanksgiving day is not a state secret so why bring up objections so late in the game? Many adults are in an emotionally unstable frame of mind due to the modern nature of this helliday. By this I mean; people get a little crazy around this time. I’ve heard people saying, Thanksgiving is CANCELLED! My in-laws are coming and insisting on staying at our home! etc. Drivers seem earratic and more dangerous than ever. The collective mental health quotient of the US drops at least 100 points every year. Tempers are high and reason is low. For this reason I think letting it go this year and working together on a new celebration (well before the holiday) next year might work out much better.
Sally said:
“Good grief, they’re children! They’re not trying to be malicious!”
Neither were children at festivals where they burn gypsies or Jews in effigy. The lack of malice is irrelevant, these events (school plays, Thanksgiving stories) tend to enforce racial stereotypes about Native Americans in a way that watermelon and kool-aid would about African Americans.
The final message of the settler/native narrative is: “They helped us survive when we first got here, then we slaughtered them and drove them off ‘our’ land.”
Mespo said:
“I would take into account the objection of leaders of the American Indian community is that was the case.”
Would you consider it acceptable for someone to tell off color jokes if Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson gave them the go ahead? I’ve frequently heard them referred to as ‘leaders of the African American community’.
So yes, I think being offended isn’t out of the question. With that said, Michele Raheja needs to take a chill pill, screaming about it or pretending it didn’t happen won’t solve ‘the problem’.
Jonolan: that is true.
Every red blooded american knowes that people who are black, asian, indian or any of those are most likely communists, and realy just hate us for our freedom. And we dont realy need to say a thing about how leftist the education system is, since I do believe there are schools that you dont have to pay for and even realy poor people who ougth to just stay in the factory can send theyr kids for. Us true lovers of freedom and conservativism will have to figth these communist elements that exist even within our own society and with the blessing of our goverment, would you believe before the red menance takes us all over with theyre jews, media and “human rigths orginizations”
I would not allow Michele Raheja to veto the event, but I would take into account the objection of leaders of the American Indian community is that was the case. If they believed the depiction to be objectionable I see no reason why it would have to occur. Clumsy attempts to honor a group by demeaning it does not serve to advance the cause of pluralism. Like Robert Fulghum I learned this in kindergarten.
Good grief, they’re children! They’re not trying to be malicious!
Pretty soon, all our children will be doing in schools is sitting in their desks, reading books, taking tests, and being quiet. No need to talk, someone might be offended by what they say. We should probably put duct tape over their mouths so they don’t accidently say anything! Wait, we shold probably use clear tape, because if colored duct tape comes into play, then we’ve got gangs and some colors may offend other students
There’s little tolerance for Whites and no tolerance at for Americana in the un-American leftist controlled education system. Get used to it; it’ll just keep getting worse until the backlash and reformation happens.