Multicultural Night- what to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I feel like if I choose America I would be mocking those who really do have a cultural identity outside of the US. I asked because you have to submit your country prior to the event. But surely I’m not the only one with this problem? What about American Indians or African Americans who can’t pinpoint a country? I noticed there weren’t any AAs represented at the last multicultural night and I figure they don’t feel welcome either.

Why can’t it be “ancestry night” or similar so that it’s not tied to a country? I had some very interesting ancestors!

Yeah I’m African American and kind of dreaded these things growing up. Like I don’t know which African country I’m “from” (and don’t care) and it’s just awkward. I’m also mixed so it’s like, what do I do, make a poster about the history of anti-miscegenation laws? Just kind of a weird event for lots of people. But I did enjoy eating all the food everyone else brings!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, I'm sorry, it sounds like your PTO is mistaken. Send them a link to the dictionary entry for "culture" and force them to let you represent Texas. I imagine that everyone on your PTO is white American and don't know what they are talking about.

Op here. Exact opposite. Everyone putting it on has a different country of origin. This is a very diverse school.

It sounds like a reason to homeschool, your kids are going to school with idiots.

[Anonymous]

Just do Ireland or whatever country your ancestors came from! I’d like to see PTA people questioning you lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just do Ireland or whatever country your ancestors came from! I’d like to see PTA people questioning you lol

Also I feel ya. My son had to make an identity poster in history class and everyone had their parents’ (I presume) nationality on there, he put mine and his father’s but he doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t care much. He is white fwiw so it’s not obvious he has a “culture”. I felt it was kind of forced and frankly stupid because I see the U.S. as a melting pot!

[Anonymous]

I enjoy this kind of event. It's not supposed to upset people.

I am 2/3s Anglo-American and 1/3 mixed Slavic (Hungarian/Jewish/Slovak/maybe Slovenian). I wasn't raised with any European ancestor passed down traditions. But I've been researching part of my Slovak ancestry and have learned a lot. About 1/3 of the Slovaks existing in the early 1900s moved to the U.S.
It's pretty interesting even though the only thing I got handed down to me were a couple of photos taken to commemmorate U.S. naturalization.

Why not pick one of the 1/16ths and research it for fun? Figure out who the person was and a little about their life and have fun with it. You don't have to represent it as your current way of living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Multicultural night has rolled around again. To summarize you’re supposed to represent the country your ancestors are from. Food, dance, costume. Dd is upset at us that she doesn’t have a country to represent. We had asked with our older son if we could choose a random country or a State and were told no. We’re from Texas- Dh and I actually can dance country western and we have cowboy boots plus our families have specific foods we’ve eaten for generations.

Dh and I were debating a country and just making one up for dd. We don’t have any that would add up to more than 1/16 in dd, definitely none in the 20th century +.

I frankly don’t care, but dd does. I told her we’d attend. We’ve had the conversation a few times and she won’t drop it. I wish there was something I could do.

This is how I remember multicultural night from 20 years ago, when I was still a teacher. I thought it had changed. I remember when ours did - we specifically added in the ability to do a state or really anything the kid wanted to do, and actively discouraged some of the (white) teachers who had been doing things like dressing up in sombreros and selling tacos at the Mexico station. But really, if you think about it, the night is a horrible idea and just a breeding ground for all kind of potential offenses and exclusions and general stupidity. I actively got involved in our school's to change this, because I'm Jewish and remember how when I was kid, a million years ago, I dreaded my schools annual "international night" because we didn't tell people in our town that we were Jewish and so I had to make something up every year. So sad to hear that schools are still doing it that way.

[Anonymous]

We don't have a night, but I bought a Statue of Liberty shirt for my kid to wear on heritage day, since we are more American than from any specific country of origin.

[Anonymous]

'merica

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just do Ireland or whatever country your ancestors came from! I’d like to see PTA people questioning you lol

OP here- I feel like this is really inauthentic. I think some of what dd is upset about is the feeling that we don't have an exciting culture like everyone else does, but we do! Our culture just doesn't extend outside of the US. I had some really neat ancestors here. One was a well known female pioneer that my dd is named after even.

[Anonymous]

My relatives on one side came from Wales to Central Pennsylvania circa 1780. You’d bet I’d do a Pennsylvania-centric display with food, recipes, photographs, maps and memorabilia.
These people created and established a culture that I treasure.

Do your own thing and I like your Tex -Mex ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just do Ireland or whatever country your ancestors came from! I’d like to see PTA people questioning you lol

OP here- I feel like this is really inauthentic. I think some of what dd is upset about is the feeling that we don't have an exciting culture like everyone else does, but we do! Our culture just doesn't extend outside of the US. I had some really neat ancestors here. One was a well known female pioneer that my dd is named after even.

THIS! I tried to work with DD on her "personal culture" assignment, but it was tough. My parents are second generation Americans and her father can trace his family back the the original settlers in West Virginia and the Mayflower. I was tempted to send her in with a quote from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn where Francie declares that she is an "American" and everyone is shocked that she is bc her parents were born in Brooklyn and not the old country. I appreciate the event to allow a sharing of the other cultures since we do have a diverse school with first generation or immigrant families, but I never know what we are expected to contribute to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I feel like if I choose America I would be mocking those who really do have a cultural identity outside of the US. I asked because you have to submit your country prior to the event. But surely I’m not the only one with this problem? What about American Indians or African Americans who can’t pinpoint a country? I noticed there weren’t any AAs represented at the last multicultural night and I figure they don’t feel welcome either.

Why can’t it be “ancestry night” or similar so that it’s not tied to a country? I had some very interesting ancestors!

You are way overthinking this and seemingly letting yourself be totally controlled by a young ES school age child. I'm from Texas too. It does have a cultural experience, but many states do. It is not a country for purposes of multicultural night at a DMV ES. My white ancestors immigrated to TX because they wanted to take away territory from Mexicans and native americans (mine weren't rich enough to own slaves, but, I assume they felt like other people should be allowed to). Being a "pioneer" isn't any better, then you are giving a massive FU to native americans. Why open yourself to that kind of criticism? Your family immigrated here from Europe at some point. Pick one of those countries if your kid insists on dressing up. I feel like white people in the northeast tend to identify with their European ancestry more (maybe because they tend to be more recent immigrants), I don't know. This is one night. Lots of people won't be dressed up. I told my kids we weren't dressing up, and we brought something easy for food (think brownies or chocolate chip cookies from Costco). I didn't care at all if it matched our "country".

[Anonymous]

My kid made a T-shirt with a pie chart representing all the places his ancesters were from (it had six pieces). And he put out some stuff about each of those places, plus the U.S.A. It lead to interesting conversations with him about things like which country do we use for the French branch of the family since they were in Canada for several generations in between France and the US? Do we include the U.K. for the Irish ancestor who was born in Liverpool on the way to the boat so is technically British, but would roll over in his grave if you said so? What do we do about the Branch who have been in the US for so long we can't trace where they came from? Assume UK? And one branch wrote Prussia on the census, but that doesn't exist anymore, so German maybe? The Autria-Hungary-Slavak part of the family got really confusing to try to sort out though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're grossly overthinking this.

+100

[Anonymous]

Both sides of my family have been in the US since the 1600 or 1700s. Not fancy; mostly small farmers or shopkeepers. I do not consider myself from anywhere else, either, OP.

At our multi-cultural night, I made food from the US South. I did not ask. Nonetheless, there was a spot set aside for the US, and there were other US participants.

Only organizers who are not in this situation could insist that you must have a non-US culture to represent. It's dumb and, well, culturally-insensitive in their part.