Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Thanksgiving California style

I love being a native Californian. With this oh-so important label, I can proudly claim that we are the forerunners to killing Thanksgiving. Claremont kindergartners for years have been celebrating Thanksgiving by dressing up in Pilgrim and Indian costumes made out of construction paper. However, a mother decided that this practice is racist and demeaning, and must be stopped at once.

"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside and the mother of one of the kindergartners. "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."

She had the balls to meet with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could discuss alternatives to celebrate T-giving without "dehumanizing" her daughter's ancestry.

"There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype," she said.

Racist stereotype? Is this woman kidding me? This sort of thing just makes my eyelids invert. Only in California do we derail an entire tradition based on one freaking lib honk. with a liberal agenda. What's worse is the school district is considering canceling the event or having the kids dress up in their spirit shirts rather than dress up in the costumes because "we all have to be sensitive and respect our diversity."

Screw that. If my kids were still small, I'd yank their little butts out of public school immediately. I'd give them a real education and teach them about our history because God knows the schools are dumbing our kids down. Dumb people equal easier manipulation.

Personally, I'd like to reenact another moment in history; the Boston Tea Party.

4 comments:

Hall Monitor said...

We have officially gone too far. This story also made http://detentionslip.org ! Check it out for all the crazy headlines from our schools.

Anonymous said...

Jeez, when I was a kid I WANTED to be an Indian!! I mean who doesn't want to be able to shoot Bald Eagles, Eat Peyote, and run a Casino??? Sure, running around with a "Cleveland Indians Mascot Idiot Grin" did invite some ridicule, but what better way to walk in Sitting Bulls Mocasins???On the other hand, who would want to be a PILGRIM??? Gotta wear those stupid hats, live off table scraps from the local Injuns, and with a whole East Coast to choose from they land in MASSACHUSSETTS??? Thats why they were starvin' that 97% State Tax rate...

Lynn Price said...

The best part was the kids dressed up like Indians anyway. When the one school arrived at the other school for their feast, there was an Indian tribe of some flavor protesting.

PROTESTING 6-year-olds for crissakes.

The Hat Chick said...

My mother begged us to take our peeps out of public school for this exact reason - insanity! Our school went from Christmas party to Holiday Party to Winter Party to Theme-of-the-School-Year Party, all in less than 10 years. Is this crazy or what?