Originally Posted by dee
Everybody loves him
Didn't get any trick or treaters round the doors last night, though was out for part of the evening. Usually the neighbouring children call and they get sweets.
A few years ago I didn't answer the door (can't remember why) - and the following week my cast iron gate was 'stolen' - found it in a neighbours garden a day or so later. So I guess that was the 'trick' because I didn't answer the door and give them any treats. I wasn't amused.
Originally Posted by dee
Everybody loves him
Around our street, the code is the inverse - if you've got a pumpkin on your window-sill or sitting somewhere prominent, you're trick-or-treatable (or "family-friendly").Originally Posted by Lory
Is that common elsewhere? I think it's a pretty good idea myself.
I find it intersting that someone of another 'ethnic' background actualy prefers to be called black. My Mum is Jamaican, but with no african bloodline, so she's lighter skinned ... with all this PC cr*p in public I have to call her 'black' though to me she's 'coloured'. I've now got to refer to myself as having 'dual-heritage' wheras I've always considered myslef to be half-caste (or double-caste if I was in a more creative mood).Originally Posted by senorita
Its funny that I've spent most of my formative years joking about sending my Mum 'back' on a bannana boat ... if I said that in public now I'd get arrested. PS ... she didnt actualy come across in a bannana boat, she arrived in a little more style, The Queen Mary!
when I was wee I always thought the use of the word "coloured" came from the same root as "colourful" and was therefore a warm, complimentary, "vive les differences" term..... but then I was still doing lego age 12 .... American Dept of Defence High School 3000 miles from these shores "cured" me of these, and other childhood delights.
edit to add in the point DOH!
I was taught that it wasn't so much the word "colored" that (some of)50s and 60s America wanted to distance itself from - more the oft seen sign "no coloured"
Last edited by Chicklet; 1st-November-2005 at 06:35 PM.
[deleted because it wasn't really that funny!]
Sounds like a good idea to me. Old people esp, as Lory mentioned, can be wary of opening their door to strangers (sadly with good reason sometimes). Calling at someone's house can be very intrusive, especially if the person is ill.Originally Posted by DavidJames
I really don't like 'trick or treat' - doing something in retaliation if they don't get their 'treat' is not a good thing for children to be learning!
sorry i dont know whats happening to my comp AAAAAHHHHH
What has happened to this thread????
its gone from Re Halloween parties to Re Black isn't coloured is it two threads in one??
Thought it was my comp at first as i have been having problems with it today
Yep. Its multi-tasking.Originally Posted by dee
Er, no. My sisters and I always used to have a brilliant time at Hallowe'en years ago long before it was commercialised by the shops. We used to dress up as ghosts and witches, do apple-bobbing, hollow out turnips 'cos there were no pumpkins in Wales, make up our own Satanic rituals and prance about totally unsupervised with lighted candles. We didn't do trick-or-treating, that is an American import and it wouldn't have been very practicable because we lived on a farm miles fom civilisation. We would have loved to do it if it we'd had the chance though. I can't remember how we knew this was the sort of thing to do at Hallowe'en - I guess comics might have been a source of information, we didn't have a television until I was about 8.Originally Posted by LMC
I had a wonderful time yesterday face-painting my niece and taking her out trick-or-treating which she has been desperate to do but her mother wouldn't let her. We only went to friends and sympathetic neighbours' houses and they were clearly delighted to take part in a bit of harmless fun. You'd have to be bit miserable to deprive the poor innocent kiddies of a few sweets.
However, Christmas. Don't get me started. Ban this madness NOW......
We had an Asian lady knock on our door. She said that she had had several trick-or-treaters begging things off of her, and she had decided to try and get even. My son, who answered the door, gave her a packet of crisps "for her shop" he said.
hmmm the Queen Mary....your mum has got class!!Originally Posted by Gus
I used to call people that too.. (half cast), ...but got told off for that too...& was corrected to say mixed race....so now I say mixed race. ;-)
If you think about it their your not split in half down the middle I hope...nor I hope you were made from a cast.
x
Last edited by senorita; 2nd-November-2005 at 09:25 AM.
Me and Dee grew up in a town where the majority at school were black. If we were to even mention the word black ie:- blackboard we would get called rascist. I never know what to say not to offend anyones race or colour. Some black people hate to be called black and some hate to be called coloured. With all this 'political correctness' around seems you cant say anything right without offending someone.Originally Posted by senorita
Anyone want to start a thread about political correctness? I am sure it will be a long one especially if you have children still at school these days..
Having read the horrifying comments by Senorita and others about name-calling as they grew up it's arguable that political correctness hasn't had much impact yet on entrenched attitudes. Is that an argument for ditching it or stepping it up?Originally Posted by Missy D
As a teacher in a working-class, predominantly white school I was aware of racist attitudes amongst the parents as well as the children. Having moved to a "respectable" middle-class school I thought there wouldn't be the same degree of racism, but I was wrong.......people just keep more quiet about it. But the kids (who don't know what's politically correct) have said some really surprising things about race.
Sorry to have contributed to the derailing of an interesting thread with inconsequential chatter about Hallowe'en, BTW. For a while back there it sounded like us whiteys were talking amongst ourselves in a desperate bid to ignore some unpleasant truths about the experiences of non-whites in Britain - or is this just the way it came over?
"Non-white" - bl**dy h*ll, it's going from bad to worse, that has to be a more offensive term than "coloured" or "black".
I sometimes attend a class that is taught by an excellent fellow who happens to have dark skin. He normally wears black trousers, black shirt, black shoes and demonstrates dance steps against a dark dance floor.
After I suggested fluorescent cycle clips or lighter clothing he revised his outfit.
When I relayed this story to an Asian aquaintance, without me thinking that she was anything except another human being, she accused me of being racist.
Zuhal
Hah! Hardly, thread derailing happens naturally in the forum - in this case, LMC happened to be the culprit. Bad LMC.Originally Posted by jivecat
(No, I had nothing to do with any derailment collaboration, honest )
I guess we should have split it into "Halloween" and "Black isn't coloured" threads - maybe we should now, but it seems not worth it.
I'll ty and wrench it back on-target.
I do hesitate using skin colour when I'm trying to describe someone - which, yes, it's silly, because that's clearly an important physical characteristic of that person, like their height / weight / hair colour etc.
But skin colour is such a loaded and emotive thing, even using it in as a plain and simple description tends to lead you into vocabulary minefields - as we've seen in this thread.
I vaguely recall seeing something on these lines in a previous thread somewhere; a brief search didn't turn it up though... Martin, help!
You carry on changing the conversation & nattering away bout Halloween...dont mind me lol rofl ;-)Originally Posted by jivecat
Last edited by senorita; 2nd-November-2005 at 11:16 AM.
There's a Douglas Adams quote there, isn't there?Originally Posted by Zuhal
Once when I demo'd, both of us (both white) turned up wearing all-black; again, we were against a black background, and we got complaints that people couldn't see us. So I think the clothing here is more important than the skin colour.
Its the attitudes that some people have that is the real problem, and the vocabulary that has come to represent those attitudes. Someone can be perfectly PC, use all the right terms, but still have racist attitudes.Originally Posted by DavidJames
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks