Claremont parents clash over kindergarten Thanksgiving costumes

[John Kerry VonErich]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Claremont parents clash over kindergarten Thanksgiving costumes
By Seema Mehta
November 25, 2008

For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won't be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

Parents in this quiet university town are sharply divided over what these construction-paper symbols represent: A simple child's depiction of the traditional (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal? Or a cartoonish stereotype that would never be allowed of other racial, ethnic or religious groups?


"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "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, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote the letter upon hearing of a four-decade district tradition, where kindergartners at Condit and Mountain View elementary schools take annual turns dressing up and visiting the other school for a Thanksgiving feast. This year, the Mountain View children would have dressed as Native Americans and walked to Condit, whose students would have dressed as Pilgrims.

Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without "dehumanizing" her daughter's ancestry.


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


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-thanksgiving25-2008nov25,0,1458033.story

[WriteDown]

1. As an actual "Indian"....

I can say, just chill out people!!!!!! They're kids and there's nothing bad about people being shown coming together.

[hlthe2b]

6. Seems like they could have reached a compromise...

These are little kids and I'd think the sentiment would be motivating enough to get past the issues.

It isn't a celebration of Columbus Day, after all...:shrug:

[Zhade]

12. As an actual ancestor of Native Americans, I disagree with you.

The problem isn't in the "coming together" (although that's a complete myth that never happened), but in the stereotyping of Native Americans.

[WriteDown]

16. I've learned to take it easier over the years...

You are of course right about it being a myth, but its not a bad one in my opinion. As far as the stereotyping is concerned, its not a bad image. Friendly, wise "indians" are always a welcome sight. I have more of an issue with the Cleveland Indians image than this one.

[customerserviceguy]

20. And can we lose that damned tomahawk chop and chant

that gets done at FSU games as well as Atlanta Braves ones? I still drink to get the image of Jane Fonda doing it next to Ted Turner about a half dozen years ago when the Braves were in the playoffs.

Talk about "playing Indian"!!

[davidinalameda]

31. you're just over-reacting

:sarcasm:

DON'T HIT ME

:bounce:

[yardwork]

22. But kids didn't come up with this idea. The stereotypes are promoted by adult teachers.

[WriteDown]

23. But the T-Day stereotype is not a bad image....

Now if we want to look at old westerns, then that is another story.

[Zhade]

25. That's your opinion. Many others disagree.

NT!

[JonQ]

50. But most people

don't have a problem with it. I don't think a few people should be able to dictate what the majority can do out of fear of being offensive.

Like when some Christians decide Halloween is bad, and thus no one should be able to celebrate it.

Don't like it? Don't participate.

[GoneOffShore]

29. Beating a dead horse there

The members of The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage - War on Holidays Parish will find you and hurt you.

Because you know - Teh stoopid, strong it is there and burns.

[LostinVA]

2. It's also inaccurate having them dress as Plains Indians

I agree with the parents -- there's a way to incorporate "role-playing," but it should be done correctly.

[John Kerry VonErich]

3. Educate me on that.

:dilemma:

[LostinVA]

5. New England Native Americans didn't dress like that

[John Kerry VonErich]

7. I meant what's the comparasan?

I wasn't trying to be insulting.

[Marrah_G]

21. Google Wampanoag or Narragansett or Mohegan or Pequot

They also didn't live in teepees.

Different enviroment and lifestyle and the Winters were even colder then they are now.

[XemaSab]

14. Puritans didn't dress like that either

:P

[WriteDown]

17. It would be more like my tribe....

but I doubt anyone would want to see those haircuts on the kids. Haha.

[iamahaingttta]

4. The War on Thanksgiving!

Woo hoo!
Get your war on!!

[Bobbieo]

9. Friday, November 28th, the day after Thanksgiving has been designated as

Native American Heritage Day.

[saigon68]

15. Just dress them up in Cammies on one side

And people with orange jump suits on the other ie Gitmo

And have a nice sit down dinner

[MattSh]

49. Stop the Insanity! Ban ALL Holidays.

Because Americans don't work enough hours as it is.

:sarcasm: <== just in case it's needed.

[MichiganVote]

8. God humans are assholes sometimes.

[LuckyLib]

10. It's long past time to give up on this little "practice" -- it was happening when I was in

Kindergarten 50 years ago. Time to move on. Certainly we can find better ways to help children explore human groups coming into contact and the history behind it. This is an adult agenda that just won't die.

[petronius]

11. I don't have a problem with this tradition - the only thing I would change is that,

given the huge amount of help the Americans gave the Pilgrims, the school that dresses like the pilgrims should walk to the school that dresses like Indians (not the other way around).

Also, as mentioned by someone else, the costumes should be as culturally correct as construction paper and scotch tape will allow. This sort of thing can easily become a farce, but even at the kindergarten level I can see it being a valid learning experience if done right (although they should tread lightly around the issues of disease, starvation, and slaughter at that age group)...

[friendly_iconoclast]

13. I have no problem with this (with one big caveat)

Ask the Wampanoag Nation what *their* take is before doing it again.

Somebody from California (whether of Native American or European descent)
doesn't know what went on back then, or how the locals really feel about it.

A DUer from eastern Massachusetts

[DS1]

18. stupid cow godwinned herself

Nazis


goddamn, some leftists are lunatics

[UndertheOcean]

24. Well, the first group almost exterminated the Native Americans , the other almost exterminated the

Jews.

I don't see a problem with her comparison.

And calling her a c$w is sexist by the way.

[JeanGrey]

19. Oh for god's sake. This kind of stuff gives me the shits.

It is getting ridiculous when we agonize over a thanksgiving pageant. Arrrrrrrgh!

[Zhade]

26. Do you also not have a problem with the name of Washington's NFL team?

Or the horrifically racist Cleveland Indians mascot?

[JeanGrey]

27. NO AND NO.

[JonQ]

36. Not really

People tend to make mascots out of things that supposedly embody virtues they approve of. That's why there are lots of lions, tigers, predatory birds of every kind, etc. And very few ticks, grubs, tapeworms, etc.

I fail to see how idolizing indian culture, even inaccurately, is "horrifically racist".

I also don't see any problem with Notre Dames fighting Irish, or the Boston Celtics, or any similiar mascots that I haven't thought of.

[Ignis]

33. Don't waste your beautiful mind on it!

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

-- Barbara Bush, March 18, 2003.

[JeanGrey]

46. I fail to see any connection.

[bitchkitty]

47. Thereby making his point for him. n/t

[JeanGrey]

51. Only in his mind.

[elleng]

28. Some history, for our enjoyment.

"IN 1879, a homesick Mark Twain sat in an Italian hotel room and wrote a long fantasy menu of all his favorite American foods. The menu began as a joke, with Twain describing the 80-dish spread as a “modest, private affair” that he wanted all to himself. But it reads today as a window into a great change in American life — the gradual, widespread disappearance of wild foods from the nation’s tables.

Twain listed cranberry sauce, “Thanksgiving style” roast turkey and the celery essential to poultry stuffing. But he surrounded these traditional holiday dishes with roast wild turkey, frogs and woodcock.

Along with hot biscuits, broiled chicken and stewed tomatoes, Twain wanted turtle soup, possum and canvasback ducks fattened by Chesapeake Bay wild celery. In Twain’s day, New York City markets still sold raccoon, a profusion of wild ducks and bear. From Delmonico’s restaurant to hunters’ homes, the nation’s tables held an easy blend of wild and cultivated foods.

So it was natural for Twain’s wonderful menu to include the best of America’s forests and waters, as well as its orchards and plowed fields. But for that very reason, it was as different from the first Thanksgiving feast at Plymouth in 1621 as from our own intensively domesticated holiday meals."

>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/opinion/26beahrs.html

[senseandsensibility]

39. Interesting article

Thanks.

[woo me with science]

30. Stories like this almost call out for another national tragedy

if only to help refocus the idiots.

People get absolutely silly in their outrage when they have too much time on their hands.

[Frank Cannon]

44. "People get absolutely silly in their outrage...

when they have too much time on their hands."

Quote of the day. :thumbsup:

I pray that the outrage brigade continues their good fortune of not having anything personally heavy to have to deal with.

[roody]

32. I teach school and taught first and second for 8 years.

I refused to have the kids make the silly costumes. It is just perpetuating the dominant patriarchal white myths. It is not harmless.

[ohio2007]

34. Do you let them have a halloween party at school ? NO ?

[roody]

35. Yes, we party. I choose not to fill their heads with lies.

[JonQ]

37. You're just having a joke with us right? nt

[friendly_iconoclast]

38. It can be done tastefully and accurately- just ask the experts

OK, you're probably not going to find someone Wampanoag in Southern California, but
something along these lines might be useful:


http://www.plimoth.org/features/wampedusite.php

http://www.plimoth.org/features/homesite.php


http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/02/plimouth_plantation_to_take_part_in_childrens_hospitals_thanksgiving_celebration/

APPROPRIATE VISITORS ON THANKSGIVING: Plimoth Plantation will be part of Children's Hospital's Thanksgiving celebration this year in Boston, thanks to an anonymous donor.

Following a 10-day eBay fund-raising auction held by the living history museum in Plymouth, a bid of $5,000 won the package offering two costumed interpreters to go anywhere in the United States for the holiday. The donor, a Cape Cod businessman, chose Children's Hospital because one of his children had been seriously ill in the past and spent a month at the facility. The child is a teen now and doing fine, plantation officials said. The man said the bid was a way to "pay it forward," they said.

One of the interpreters is Shann Young of Plymouth, who portrays Edward Winslow. Young began as a volunteer at the museum at 17 and now, at 26, is an interpreter/artisan who specializes in construction of the nonprofit plantation's 17th-century style homes. Interpreting the role of Hobbomock will be Jonathan Perry, 31, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe who has worked for 13 years at the plantation in the Wampanoag Indigenous Program. He left the plantation's employ in September to work for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe as a senior cultural resource monitor in the tribe's historic preservation office.

[XemaSab]

40. There are MANY tribes in California

A resourceful teacher could probably get someone from a tribe and a local college history prof in to talk to the students. :bounce:

[zonkers]

41. I love reading about california indian tribes, especially Chumash whom

the missionaries never conquered.

[XemaSab]

42. Some Chumash were never conquered

Other Chumash built the mission in Santa Barbara. :P

[zonkers]

45. Ahhh, interesting. I read a book called Digger about the plight of

the CA indians. And how do you know so much about Indians, Xema?

[davidthegnome]

43. Seems like nonsense to me

Apparently children shouldn't play dress up either. Apparently, we should cease to celebrate any holiday at all based on the fact that it might possibly offend someone.

Let them be offended. I don't see how a bunch of kids dressing up is going to hurt anyone. I see no harm in the general celebration of Thanksgiving, and all of this phony outrage is just annoying.

[bitchkitty]

48. A Thanksgiving pageant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptLD0kCoHG4&feature=related

The good stuff starts at about 3:00 minutes in...