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Diversity Day - Girl in Union Jack dress sent home

theprestige said:
Aren't they more or less all British children?

I don't imagine foreign nationals make up enough of the UK schoolchild population, to set aside a whole day for them to announce that they're not British.

Maybe our heroine should have attended in the livery of Scandinavian reavers, or of Norman overlords, or of Roman colonists, or Dutch holiday-makers, or whatever her lineage might have been, now that "British" is a taboo ethnicity.
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The issue was to do with culture, so it was one of those culture-type days where pupils could have a learning experience about the home culture of their fellow pupils. So pupils could turn up in Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English, Pakistani, Caribbean, African, Filipino, Indian, whatever, dress, flag or normal wear, with a little essay to read out saying a bit about it. What this dad did was insert a few provocative statements politicising it, in the sense of 'what about us English, too many foreigners' rhetoric (think Tommy Robinson) so of course, whilst the girl was sincere, she was manipulated by her Tommy-Robinson-friend dad into trying to stir up far right mischief, and this is what upset the school, not the fact she was praising British culture. Completely according to Dad's plan, the school - perhaps unwisely or unfairly - wouldn't let her read it out or something, so surprise, surprise, Dad was in contact with a DAILY HATE MAIL hack to publicise how 'our kids' are being discriminated against, using his daughter as a 'sad face' urchin-standing-alone-in-the-street crying prop.
 
junkshop said:
British is not, and never has been, an ethnicity. No group, be it ethnic, societal or religious can honestly claim to be native to the British Isles.

The English aren't from England, the Scots aren't from Scotland, the British aren't from Britain, but anyone that makes their home in Britain (whether by accident or design) is British (IMO).
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According to some genealogists, the English gene is hard to differentiate from the German/French one, whereas, it is easy for them to identify Scots, Welsh and Irish as 'British' as it is distinct from the continental mob. They can even estimate what part you come from. Although I am not sure it is accurate, being based on what they have on their data base already.
 
Vixen said:
The issue was to do with culture, so it was one of those culture-type days where pupils could have a learning experience about the home culture of their fellow pupils. So pupils could turn up in Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English, Pakistani, Caribbean, African, Filipino, Indian, whatever, dress, flag or normal wear, with a little essay to read out saying a bit about it. What this dad did was insert a few provocative statements politicising it, in the sense of 'what about us English, too many foreigners' rhetoric (think Tommy Robinson) so of course, whilst the girl was sincere, she was manipulated by her Tommy-Robinson-friend dad into trying to stir up far right mischief, and this is what upset the school, not the fact she was praising British culture. Completely according to Dad's plan, the school - perhaps unwisely or unfairly - wouldn't let her read it out or something, so surprise, surprise, Dad was in contact with a DAILY HATE MAIL hack to publicise how 'our kids' are being discriminated against, using his daughter as a 'sad face' urchin-standing-alone-in-the-street crying prop.
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This is a complete turnaround of the story as originally told. We saw the speech way back near the start of the thread and there wasn't any "too many foreigners / what about us English" stuff in it. Where does this tale of her speech being vetted and rejected as unacceptable come from?
 
Jack by the hedge said:
This is a complete turnaround of the story as originally told. We saw the speech way back near the start of the thread and there wasn't any "too many foreigners / what about us English" stuff in it. Where does this tale of her speech being vetted and rejected as unacceptable come from?
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The two penultimate paras in the OP 'speech' looks like Dad-thought. I dunno, we haven't heard the school's version of events. Maybe it thought it was a dig at the ethnic minority kids.

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So do you have a reference for her not being allowed to speak only after her speech was vetted and found unacceptable or is that conjecture?
 
Jack by the hedge said:
So do you have a reference for her not being allowed to speak only after her speech was vetted and found unacceptable or is that conjecture?
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Well she claims she was turned away so presumably so, as I can't see arriving in a Spice Girl dress is a problem. The thing is this: the Dad ready to contact the DAILY MAIL, looks like a political set up, using his 12-year-old daughter as the politicized weapon. Why would he have had a contact at the DM unless he was fully expecting a row, as plotted by himself. I mean schools have issues every day, and the school might well be in the wrong and acted unfairly, but how many of these every day disputes end up as DM headlines?
 
Jack by the hedge said:
So do you have a reference for her not being allowed to speak only after her speech was vetted and found unacceptable or is that conjecture?
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Vixen said:
Well she claims she was turned away so presumably so, as I can't see arriving in a Spice Girl dress is a problem. The thing is this: the Dad ready to contact the DAILY MAIL, looks like a political set up, using his 12-year-old daughter as the politicized weapon. Why would he have had a contact at the DM unless he was fully expecting a row, as plotted by himself. I mean schools have issues every day, and the school might well be in the wrong and acted unfairly, but how many of these every day disputes end up as DM headlines?
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That would be a 'no', then.
 
I would have thought the school's initial objection would have been to the style of the dress, not its decoration or any speech she was going to give.
 
I thought we had enough of a problem with not knowing, in all the fuss and yelling, what the original intent of the school event was. What were the pupils told it was to be? Did she misunderstand what it was for, or was the info ambiguous? Was it an honest mistake on her part, or a deliberate one, or a mistake on the teacher's part?

Now we get a new version of the story where her prepared speech was scrutinised and rejected. Is there any basis for this, or is it pure imagination?
 
Jack by the hedge said:
I presume a Ginger Spice sparkly union jack dress is a bit of Chinese made fancy dress costume you can just buy online for a few quid. I'm not sure if that tell us anything about what was in anyone's mind.
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Probably called, "British Redheaded pop start dress". Meh, not much to see other but it is a gift to folks who want to point at British schools and yell "woke". So, kind of dumb on the school's part to send her home, should have just rolled their eyes and moved on.

@Darat, its moderately funny that there is a version of this story that would have the teams on opposite sides. If she'd been sent home because it was too revealing.
 
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I hate the far right, but the contempt that many on the left have had for basic patriotism left the right an opening.
 
Darat said:
I'm sure her dad has brown friends...
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SO anybody who displays the Unjion Jack is a bigot?
lionking said:
The sad thing in the antipodes is that the Australian flag has been hijacked by racists. I don’t know what the answer is.
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Happening all over the place. As stated above, that ridiculing and bad mouthing patrotrism has been popular among certain elements on the left for along time gave the right wing extremists as opneing.
Extremes feed off each other.
Vixen said:
According to some genealogists, the English gene is hard to differentiate from the German/French one, whereas, it is easy for them to identify Scots, Welsh and Irish as 'British' as it is distinct from the continental mob. They can even estimate what part you come from. Although I am not sure it is accurate, being based on what they have on their data base already.
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There is an old joke: All and Englishman is is a German who could swim.
And as far French genes go, we could into a debate about how French the Normans really were.....
 
junkshop said:
British is not, and never has been, an ethnicity. No group, be it ethnic, societal or religious can honestly claim to be native to the British Isles.

The English aren't from England, the Scots aren't from Scotland, the British aren't from Britain, but anyone that makes their home in Britain (whether by accident or design) is British (IMO).
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Who are you to contradict the great historians, Giscinny and Uderzo.
They even have an accurate treatise on the personality traits of the native population.
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dudalb said:
I hate the far right, but the contempt that many on the left have had for basic patriotism left the right an opening.
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What purpose has "basic patriotism"? Isn't it just to create a "them" and "us" division? It has nothing to do with advancing democracy, human rights, or anything positive, but only to create loyalty to your own state, no matter what.
dudalb said:
SO anybody who displays the Unjion Jack is a bigot?
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No, but if the extreme right takes it over, then it becomes a symbol for the extreme right, and your use of this symbol will be seen as support of the extreme right.

If people want to disengage the national flag from the extreme right, they'll need to use it themselves en masse. But that is difficult if you also do not want to distance yourself from other nations.

Take a sports game event. It is generally held that you should support the team from your own country, although I can't see why. In my opinion you could also support the team with the nicest players, or those who give the most memorable games. If you carry your national flag, you are not supposed to cheer when the opposing team does something really good. You are stuck with your own side.
 
dudalb said:
SO anybody who displays the Unjion Jack is a bigot?

Happening all over the place. As stated above, that ridiculing and bad mouthing patrotrism has been popular among certain elements on the left for along time gave the right wing extremists as opneing.
Extremes feed off each other.

There is an old joke: All and Englishman is is a German who could swim.
And as far French genes go, we could into a debate about how French the Normans really were.....
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Unfortunately, the St George's flag has come to have those connotations. However, the Union flag not really. Even Blair used it in his 'cool Britannia' and the 2012 Olympics. I think what's happening here with Courtney Wright, the 12-year-old, has more to it than meets the eye. What a coincidence her father is a chum of Tommy Robinson! I mean, whilst it might be fun for Courtney now, who knows what trauma she might feel as an adult when it dawns on her her dad has used her for a political agenda, and her image has become a figure of far right notoriety.
 
Vixen said:
Unfortunately, the St George's flag has come to have those connotations. However, the Union flag not really. Even Blair used it in his 'cool Britannia' and the 2012 Olympics. I think what's happening here with Courtney Wright, the 12-year-old, has more to it than meets the eye. What a coincidence her father is a chum of Tommy Robinson! I mean, whilst it might be fun for Courtney now, who knows what trauma she might feel as an adult when it dawns on her her dad has used her for a political agenda, and her image has become a figure of far right notoriety.
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"Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man."
 
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