Multicultural Night- what to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of the ES years, but this used to piss me off. We actually can point to relatives who came from Europe (Ireland & German) in the later half of the 19th century. My parents were were 2nd gen and between the German side dropping all German things during WW1 and the Irish side being big strivers I grew up with no ethnic affinity. So when my kids had to do these things, I sent them dressed in their athletic wear with chocolate chip cookies. One kid didn't care and the other thought it was funny and made up a story about how the cookies were a secret family recipe. Another vote for just showing up and representing Texas!

Your parents were second generation so what was the problem? They must have had some stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of the ES years, but this used to piss me off. We actually can point to relatives who came from Europe (Ireland & German) in the later half of the 19th century. My parents were were 2nd gen and between the German side dropping all German things during WW1 and the Irish side being big strivers I grew up with no ethnic affinity. So when my kids had to do these things, I sent them dressed in their athletic wear with chocolate chip cookies. One kid didn't care and the other thought it was funny and made up a story about how the cookies were a secret family recipe. Another vote for just showing up and representing Texas!

Your parents were second generation so what was the problem? They must have had some stories.

dp: It's like you didn't even read the post you responded to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The multi-cultural night should include an African American table and a US table, if there are families interested in participating!

Ours event even had a "Jews of the Diaspora" table which I thought was cute.

I wanted to say I like this idea!

African Americans are American, and a hell of a lot more American than many other groups.

There is no America without us, so this idea is offensive and belongs in the circular file.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I always list that as my favorite book. Every time I read it, with a little more life experience under my belt, the more I get out of it. Wonderful book.

[Anonymous]

Don't you long for the days where you picked a country name out of a hat and hoped for the best?

[Anonymous]

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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".

I grew up in Massachusetts. I can assure you that many of the people who I grew up with were not first or even second generation Irish, British, or Italian but there was very strong identification with being Irish, Italian, or a descendent of the Mayflower. It is a part of most peoples history and they hold it dear. Daughters of the Revolution is a thing. Trips to the homeland is a thing. The North End in Boston, very much a yummy, fattening thing. People gloss over the decimation of the Native Peoples in the region in favor of pride in being funders of the US and backbone workers of the US and the like.

The decimation was almost entirely through unintentional spread of disease.

We are not blaming China for covid, whether it came from a bat or a lab. Why are you blaming the colonists for the unintentional spread of disease?

It was far more then unintentional spread of disease. Settlers tot he US brought weapons that the Native People did not have and had no issues using those weapons to control the territory that the settlers wanted to control. Colonial policiies and latter States laws and Federal Law allowed for the mistreatment of Native Peoples and were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Native Peoples. So while you could forgive the initial settlers spread of disease, the use of force against the Native Population was not an accident. And yes, it is something that we largely gloss over in US History and State history classes.

Nah, it used to be well understood. We won and they lost. Now, though, when everyone is a winner, this idea has become incomprehensible and reprehensible. So now children and adults do not understand it.

Definitely not glossed over, but all countries have been based on conquest. And "Native" people fought each other for territory. And yes, the previous PP was accurate that most of the "genocide" was due to disease. See recent studies on DNA bottlenecks in the Americas and when they occurred.

Also “native” Americans did not just magically appear here. They too conquered those who were here before them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of the ES years, but this used to piss me off. We actually can point to relatives who came from Europe (Ireland & German) in the later half of the 19th century. My parents were were 2nd gen and between the German side dropping all German things during WW1 and the Irish side being big strivers I grew up with no ethnic affinity. So when my kids had to do these things, I sent them dressed in their athletic wear with chocolate chip cookies. One kid didn't care and the other thought it was funny and made up a story about how the cookies were a secret family recipe. Another vote for just showing up and representing Texas!

Your parents were second generation so what was the problem? They must have had some stories.

dp: It's like you didn't even read the post you responded to.

PP PP - ie the one who's parents were 2nd gen. I can think of exactly 2 stories from my parents. German side - my ggp and gggp would speak German at home when they didn't want the kids to understand what they were talking about. This was told when I listened into something I wasn't supposed to. Irish side - my ggf died of typhus 2 weeks after they arrived in the US. This when I asked about our Irish heritage. So, yeah, that's why I don't have any "stories" or cultural affinity to share.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't you long for the days where you picked a country name out of a hat and hoped for the best?

No!!!!!!
That’s when you get all sorts of stupid stereotypes at tables. Sorry Karen, but the chips and salsa from Chevys don’t really represent Mexico.

At least if families pick a country on their own they’ll feel some pride and hopefully has some resources to something sorta-kinda-almost authentic-ish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

How dare you focus on our similarities as Americans rather than differences that divide us? That sort of attitude will get you crucified in some schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't you long for the days where you picked a country name out of a hat and hoped for the best?

As long as the hat isn’t a sombrero, you might still get away with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The multi-cultural night should include an African American table and a US table, if there are families interested in participating!

Ours event even had a "Jews of the Diaspora" table which I thought was cute.

I wanted to say I like this idea!

African Americans are American, and a hell of a lot more American than many other groups.

There is no America without us, so this idea is offensive and belongs in the circular file.

I'm offended that you believe that African Americans have no culture.

[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.

That is so sad- I totally get where you are coming from and I LOVED these nights b/c back in the 80's noone had heard of Pakistan, where my parents immigrated from. I think you should do the republic of Texas or whatever Texas used to be called before it was a state and educate the PTA person that you do actually have a culture and identity. A lot of immigrants believe that there is no 'american' culture, and its true in the same way that there is no Indian or Pakistani culture bc someone who is from Peshawar will have a totally different culture than someone from Multan. the different regions in America do have rich cultural traditions that are apparent when you live in a less immigrant heavy area. I would first enlist an ally in explainingthis- maybe a fellow parent or teacher and then approach the organizers. I hope this works out for you, I'd be super upset as well.

[Anonymous]

I hate these nights. We are Jewish with a lot of family in Israel and our kids go to a school with a sizable Muslim population. Serving Israeli food and having a lot of Israeli flags at our table just seemed like it could stir up a lot of stuff so we skipped it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of the ES years, but this used to piss me off. We actually can point to relatives who came from Europe (Ireland & German) in the later half of the 19th century. My parents were were 2nd gen and between the German side dropping all German things during WW1 and the Irish side being big strivers I grew up with no ethnic affinity. So when my kids had to do these things, I sent them dressed in their athletic wear with chocolate chip cookies. One kid didn't care and the other thought it was funny and made up a story about how the cookies were a secret family recipe. Another vote for just showing up and representing Texas!

Your parents were second generation so what was the problem? They must have had some stories.

dp: It's like you didn't even read the post you responded to.

PP PP - ie the one who's parents were 2nd gen. I can think of exactly 2 stories from my parents. German side - my ggp and gggp would speak German at home when they didn't want the kids to understand what they were talking about. This was told when I listened into something I wasn't supposed to. Irish side - my ggf died of typhus 2 weeks after they arrived in the US. This when I asked about our Irish heritage. So, yeah, that's why I don't have any "stories" or cultural affinity to share.

Oh my god, you are so selfish! Obviously you should have sent your child in with typhus to share with their class!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't you long for the days where you picked a country name out of a hat and hoped for the best?

No!!!!!!
That’s when you get all sorts of stupid stereotypes at tables. Sorry Karen, but the chips and salsa from Chevys don’t really represent Mexico.

At least if families pick a country on their own they’ll feel some pride and hopefully has some resources to something sorta-kinda-almost authentic-ish.

So then what's keeping Karen's family from choosing Mexico on their own and serving up chips and salsa from Chevy's?