Halloween cancelled, might offend someone

[RobMoriRB]

What is next making Canada stop Halloween now??

[SeventySeven]

Originally Posted by RobMoriRB

What is next making Canada stop Halloween now??

There a couple schools in edmonton that have done this.

[_J_]

Originally Posted by 5kgLifter

Culture, in the eyes of most governments is a one-way street, you must protect others from your own national and cultural traditions at all cost so as not to offend but at the same time you must accept all other nations' cultural differences so as not to offend and what occurs as a result is that every national living in the country gets wound up, with good reason, because they are being "held back" at the expense of incoming cultures which are permitted freedom to thrive, which then results in racism which has been caused by the government of that nation and not by the people themselves.

I couldn't agree more.

First, the article says this is a preventative measure. As in, no one has been offended....yet. But, the school system is sure that someone will eventually be offended. And that person will probably sue and cost the school a small fortune in legal fees, whether they win or not. This is a pure fear-based proactive measure by the school. Yet another example of how ridiculous the PC movement is and yet another failure of our legal system.

Second, I guess I don't understand how this would offend someone from another culture. I'm not aware of a culture that finds children dressing up in costumes to be offensive. Does such a culture exist? Wait...I've got it! Yes, it would offend poeple from cultures like: Witch, Monster, SpongeBob, Ninja, Harry-Potter, Star Wars, and all Fireman, Policeman, and Military Americans.

[Tannhauser]

But has it been banned because of potential offence to other cultures? Or is it nothing to do with that?

Beware of stories claiming that x has been 'banned' because it may cause offence. In the UK at least, there is a long history of misreporting this sort of thing. It's a cynical move to push people's buttons, playing on a fear of erosion of indigenous culture.

An example is the 'rainbow sheep' story. It was reported that a UK school had stopped teaching the nursery rhyme 'baa baa black sheep' in case it caused offence to black people - they now sang 'baa baa rainbow sheep'. This story was repeated all over the UK media, and it still surfaces on the internet every so often. The only trouble is, it's not true. The school in question does get the kids to sing 'rainbow sheep' for one of the verses - along with various other colours. Nothing to do with well-meaning lefties trying to avoid racism, and everything to do with increasing the kids vocabulary.

I'm not saying that this particular 'offence' story is untrue - but it's just worth bearing in mind that (a) the school denies that's the reason and (b) media outlets are hot for any cultural erosion story.

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by Tannhauser

Beware of stories claiming that x has been 'banned' because it may cause offence. In the UK at least, there is a long history of misreporting this sort of thing. It's a cynical move to push people's buttons, playing on a fear of erosion of indigenous culture.

This is immediately what jumped to mind for me as well. I'm very sceptical about this type of thing because the news has done a great job of playing on people's fears and pushing their buttons to the point of a complete lack of sense and logic.

[Hazzard]

Source.

Oh, and some fake ones:

[babboon]

This is so not right in my opinion. I love Halloween. I have some of my best memories of childhood from our Halloween parties in school. And now they are called Harvest parties and you can not even dress up. That is not right. But look we can not even say Christmas tree. It is the Holiday tree...... DOn't even get me started on that.

[Fazc]

Hahahahaah the bear one!

[_J_]

Hazzard:
Good find on those pics. I have some issues with almost all of them.

The "we're a culture" theme is off the mark with the arab thing. I would assume the arab fellow would deny that suicide bombing is a part of his culture. The costume IS a part of his culture, but if that were ALL the guy was wearing (w/o the bomb) would the arab kid still find it offensive? If not, there is yet another hole in the poster's theme.

OTOH, the Geisha is a part of Japanese (and to a lesser extent Chinese) culture. However, it is a historical part. The costume is a historical costume. Like someone dressing up as George Washington or a wild west cowboy. I truly wonder if the Scottish are offended by someone dressed up as a bagpiper or William Wallace? Somehow, I doubt it.

The one chick in blackface makeup...now that could be offensive. It depends entirely on context. Is he dressed as an R&B star or rapper? Or is this merely a caricature?



And the bear thing. I was laughing so hard, somoene came to my office to see if I was ok.

[bruteforce]

In general, I'm not moved by people saying they're offended about something. Don't want to be identified with stereo type x? Stop glorifying it in your culture.

Note that its also ok to mock me, but as a big white dude, I'm not supposed to joke about anything. As a christian, my religion can be mocked and torn down, but I can't make fun of others. Not that I would but the disparity is there.

You can't talk disrespectfully about the Prophet. But you can get a gov't grant to piss in a jar and stick a crucifix in it.

I can't call black people black, but I can be called white, honkey, cracker.

You can't say a thing about how damn skinny folks are, but i can be mocked for
being"fat".

I'm not buying to it. I don't care if people around me are shocked and put off by simple statements. They aren't intended to offend, I don't go for racial slurs, but I'm not going to alter my life and my speech just because someone wants to get pissy about a word.

Last part of the rant. How black to you have to be to be black? Doesn't seem to matter. But I need to prove my family history to say I'm Cherokee. I don't look it, so now I have to prove how pure I am. Bullshit.