It's Racist To Hate Spicy Food
England is just going totally down the tubes. Every week it's something else, reflecting their apparent shame at being English and Western, but dressed up as multi-culti concern.
Last week, it was appeasing Muslims who can't deal with dogs in Western society. My solution: go back to the primitive land you come from; the Brits' solution, make the dogs wear little booties when they search suspected Muslim terrorists' homes for bombs!
Just up the pike, there was the apology Scottish police were forced to make after they put out the cutest ad with a puppy on it -- because it supposedly showed insensitivity to Muslims. And what if it did? Again, if you have weird religious prohibitions against dogs (but see the link above for the reality on that), guess what: You shouldn't move to a culture where everybody, including the police, has a doggie.
Finally, this week in English shame and stupidity, they may brand toddlers racist if they turn up their little noses or say "yuk!" to spicy (i.e. foreign) cuisine. Rosa Prince writes for The Independent:
The National Children's Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.
The guidance by the NCB is designed to draw attention to potentially-racist attitudes in youngsters from a young age.
Yes, I confess: I'm a hater. Can't eat anything with the slightest spice in it. And, another point against me: I love dogs, although I now feel a bit of shame for dressing mine up. Please know that it's just because I'm really weird, and had bad Barbies as a child, not because I'm an appeaser.
(This little T-shirt was a present from my friend and lawyer Melissa, and comes from HipDoggie.com, which has a lot of cute clothes for micromutties, and none of them are tiny burkhas.)
This is Britain we're talking about, remember that. Over there it is considered "discriminatory" towards gays if the brush is trimmed at a local park.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2263277/Plans-to-clear-undergrowth-from-gay-sex-spot-branded-discriminatory.html
David Crawford at July 9, 2008 7:42 AM
The blog entry also quotes thusly:
Ibrahim Mogra, one of Britain’s leading imams, said the measures were unnecessary: “In Islamic law the dog is not regarded as impure, only its saliva is. Most Islamic schools of law agree on that. If security measures require to send a dog into a house, then it has to be done. I think Acpo needs to consult better and more widely.
“I know in the Muslim community there is a hang-up against dogs, but this is cultural. Also, we know the British like dogs; we Muslims should do our bit to change our attitudes.”
RS at July 9, 2008 7:42 AM
I hope people are following these links, we're not getting the full stories from Amy's blog entries. About the picture of the pooch - the objection by the city councillor was not that it was a picture of a dog per se, rather that the postcard with the picture of the dog would not be displayed by shopkeepers from cultures where dogs are seen as unclean, and therefore the message would not get out effectively to some communities:
Osama Saeed, of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, said Muslims traditionally regarded dogs differently from people brought up in Western culture.
He said: "This seems to be a complaint based on culture rather than religion. There isn't any Islamic basis for taking issue with a simple picture of a little puppy.
"It does not appear to me that Councillor Mohammed Asif has mentioned anywhere that Muslims as a faith group would find this offensive."
RS at July 9, 2008 7:50 AM
I hope people are following these links, we're not getting the full stories from Amy's blog entries.
I post the links because I can't post the whole stories -- copyrights, you know...and mean for people to go to the links. Don't be lazy, now, they're interesting!
Amy Alkon at July 9, 2008 8:18 AM
I see this experience differently since reading Ed Husein's The Islamist (autobiographical account of a British guy's entry into the world of radical Islamists, and his subsequent disillusionment. He describes how his groups' M.O. was to provoke anger, create confrontations, and accuse of unfairness and mistreatment. Using these tactics, they were able to get their way with all kinds of unreasonable demands, just because people didn't want to fight. They quickly impressed lots of people and changed the whole atmosphere for Muslims wherever they went. And their demands kept growing and growing at each victory. I would imagine at some point, they will start protesting against scantily clad women in advertisements, since that is offensive to them. Best to pave the way with dogs. You can also see how the mainstream Muslim leader has responded and tried to frame the protests as silly and nothing to do with the concerns of virtually all Muslims.
Quizzical at July 9, 2008 8:36 AM
OMG! I tend to turn my nose up at McDonald's! Does that make me a racist against "white" culture? Or does that mean I've truly embraced multi-cultism? Here I thought I could just like the food I liked, but I guess I was wrong. I'm so confused.
moreta at July 9, 2008 9:25 AM
Yes, Amy, you are weird for dressing up your dog, and I would heap ridicule on you, except that I sometimes adorn mine with a bell and a vest.
My motivation is different, though. She is a bird dog, and the bell helps me keep track of her when we are hunting in thick brush. If I happen to go out after birds while the deer season is open, I add a blaze orange vest, just in case the bell is not enough to warn hunters that she is not legal game.
Axman at July 9, 2008 9:41 AM
Lucy has a bell, but it's a tiny one, for a cat, and I put it on her so people wouldn't step on her in Paris (although I always walk her between me and the wall). It's great at home, because when I call her in from the yard, I can hear her trotting to the door from the backyard.
Amy Alkon at July 9, 2008 9:47 AM
Britain is definitely flushing its culture down the drain, but Canada isn't far behind. Here's an example.
Robert W. at July 9, 2008 10:04 AM
"You can also see how the mainstream Muslim leader has responded and tried to frame the protests as silly and nothing to do with the concerns of virtually all Muslims." Huh, what do you mean by "frame"? The Imam is coming out in public and saying “I know in the Muslim community there is a hang-up against dogs, but this is cultural. Also, we know the British like dogs; we Muslims should do our bit to change our attitudes.” You have an Imam going against the stupidity publicly, this is great.
Most of the more horrid stuff associated with Islam is cultural not religious.
vlad at July 9, 2008 10:44 AM
Why don't the British say they are offended by seeing women walk around in burkas, or even with a headscarf? Aren't these women showing insensitivity to the delicate feelings of the British? It can work both ways.
Chrissy at July 9, 2008 10:46 AM
I love my huge male Maine Coon Cat (probably 3 times the size of your dog).
You know what? You don't HAVE to be normal. Screw normal. "Normal" means we have to be straight and married and have 2.5 kids and drive a minivan and live in suburbia. And wear leggings and decorated sweatshirts.
(OK, so I'm straight and married, don't hate me, I'm still not fully "normal" per se and will not become so in the future).
You are you and God Bless You, you tell it straight. I admire this because around the age of 35 I really understood that I was not put on this Earth to make nice and go along & get along - I tell it straight when someone needs to and whoops, sometimes people don't like the truth. Oh well.
Kiss that little dog on the lips for me and rock on.
MJ at July 9, 2008 10:46 AM
With you on all of it, MJ. And Lucy has the cutest little doggie breath in the world (sorry to gross the rest of you out).
Amy Alkon at July 9, 2008 10:54 AM
However I'm not hugely against the rule implemented in principle, but I'm afraid that it's going to be badly misused. Having been the target of racist comments while I was young I can see the point of the law. If the enforcements of the policy falls into the hand of some idiot the two following phrases will be viewed as the same.
"Yuk, I don't like that"
and
"What is this camel jockey shit you are trying to feed me?"
vlad at July 9, 2008 10:56 AM
"I love my huge male Maine Coon Cat (probably 3 times the size of your dog)." I'm not sure you can really call a Main Coon a cat (by virtue of size and personality way too dog like) but I'm a huge fan of the breed as well.
vlad at July 9, 2008 10:58 AM
Ever more fucked up this stupid, retarded fear of offending.
The even scarier thought is that they are trying to hamper the police in doing these searches. And the police say oh, so sorry? Didn't mean to offend?
What's next? My grandson's a bigot because he doesn't eat peanut soup? Never mind that peanuts are a lethal poison to him. And let's pretend like spicy foods don't fuck up the stomach.
And how dare they hate that adorable puppy in that poster! The bigots! I used to joke that I was a doggie bigot because I'm a cat person but I have to eat those words in the face of a Lucy or this little guy and when asked to explain my obsession with Snoopy. No, they're the doggie bigots. Let's start a civil rights moment for the little cutie. (And, no, PETA does not count as a civil rights movement for animals. Where are those jokers whenever it's something this asinine.)
Don't you dare apologize for dressing up Lucy! She looks adorable and she looks like she's loving looking adorable.
Donna at July 9, 2008 11:04 AM
Wow. I'm raising 2 bigots and a culterually sensitive kid over here, and didn't even know it. I just thought 2 were picky eaters. Stupid me. Oh wait, no, stupid is Britain!
momof3 at July 9, 2008 11:45 AM
Lucy is much more, ahem, "petite" than my much more cookie-jar-shaped pug girl. But I do have a cute little plaid Sherlock-Holmes jacket I put on her in the winter. And I do give her kisses - not on her mouth, but on top of her precious, wrinkled little head. She closes her eyes and makes gurgling noises. I don't know how an entire culture of people can be against dogs. That's just not right.
Pirate Jo at July 9, 2008 11:47 AM
...Ok, thanks for the mental image! I now think a little doggie burka would be about the cutest thing EVER. :) But then someone might accuse me of making a political statement!
Melissa G at July 9, 2008 12:56 PM
i'll admit i have not read the article, but i would chalk this up to "nothing new to report here'.
People who don't like spicy foods racist? you don't say. Why, I bet 75% of the people who live south of the mason dixon line are just that.
But really, I'm sure it's just a dispositive factor, not a determinative one.
j.d. at July 9, 2008 5:38 PM
This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.
What three-year-old doesn't say "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar food, foreign or not?
From the article: ...failing to pick children up on their racist attitudes could instill prejudice....
So can constantly being called a racist every time you express a politically-incorrect opinion about your food.
There's a reason Gerber doesn't make a strained jalapeno flavor.
In a nation that considers "mushy peas" an acceptable side dish, this kind of crap could have serious repercussions.
Conan the Grammarian at July 9, 2008 5:53 PM
Vlad said: "You can also see how the mainstream Muslim leader has responded and tried to frame the protests as silly and nothing to do with the concerns of virtually all Muslims." Huh, what do you mean by "frame"? The Imam is coming out in public and saying “I know in the Muslim community there is a hang-up against dogs, but this is cultural. Also, we know the British like dogs; we Muslims should do our bit to change our attitudes.” You have an Imam going against the stupidity publicly, this is great.
By "frame", I meant "contextualize". So I'm saying what you're saying--that I'm glad the imam spoke up, and punctured their argument.
Quizzical at July 9, 2008 6:00 PM
Hi Amy, it's your... well I would say favourite but maybe noisiest is a good word, Brit here.
Yup our country is going potty, but it's not just over the followers of the mad prophet but it's anything. You've got to remember that one of the biggest employers in the country is the public sector. We keep coming up with new positions for people and then pay them money so they can get a mortgage and lots of debt to buy stuff and keep the economy running.
It was a great little scam until the banks fell over, oops. Anyway the problem with all these pointless little make work jobs is you get two kinds of people doing them. The ones who (sensibly) don't take them seriously and slack off and do the least possible to get through the day and get home to there overpriced home full of overpriced stuff they don't need. And the really worrying ones who do take it seriously, who think that they really have a duty to change they way people think, that all points of view are equally valid except the ones that aren't.... you know the anal retentive fuckwits.
Most of us ignore them but our journalists love them because they make for an endless stream of 'Look this countries going to the dogs' or 'Look at this stupidity' stories to please their corporate overlords. Which is nice for them because they are busy little bees what with all the real journalists having got the sack.
I think I may have had to much coffee. There was a point. I think it was along the lines of, yes things over here are a bit off. But we'll keep on mocking your culture until our sorry island sinks into the sea, or we get stoned for saying nasty things about Allah. It's always a problem with us, as long as you guys are so loud and so amazingly good at doing dumb stuff (Iraq, Dubya, SUV's) we think we're fine.
So America, if you want to help your Ex-Master finally get their heads out of the arses (note spelling) and do something about their corporate police state they are sleep walking into, please do something about yours.
I think you.
Simon Proctor at July 10, 2008 4:11 AM
There are better ways to reveal if toddlers are hiding "racist" ideals in their little hearts --- for example, they could just check to see if they weigh the same as a duck, or if they float.
David J at July 10, 2008 6:03 AM
Thanks for putting that picture of Lucy at the end of the post. It really calmed me down after reading about that idiocy. I have a sensitive stomach, and though I love spicy (Mexican, Thai, Cajun) food and could eat it every day, I don't enjoy being sick that often. So add me onto the racist train with Mom's 2 kids, I mean, bigots.
Lucy is probably the cutest dog ever. I have 2 70lb dogs and more than 2 but less than 7 cats living with me at any one time since I am a foster guardian for my local Humane Society, and I'm fairly certain that all the cats I have right now (including the two 4 month old kittens) probably outweigh Lucy. I also recently fostered a 10-year-old Maltese that was rescued from a puppy mill, and I probably would have kept her, except one of my dogs didn't really like her. If I had kept her, I am certain that her wardrobe would have rivaled mine. (She is now in a permanent foster home.) The point of this long paragraph is: Amy is not weird for dressing up her dog and please post more pictures of Lucy.
Amy K. at July 10, 2008 12:05 PM
I'll second Amy K's motion.
In fact, post more pics period. I love the pics. You and Gregg are both such great photographers. (And, yes, I chased down his site just to see what pics he had there. I was only disappointed because he didn't have enough of them.)
Lucy is a little cutie.
Donna (T's Grammy) at July 11, 2008 6:46 AM
Yikes, Amy, what happened to Gregg's site? I reminded myself that it was a few months ago I looked and went to look again and it doesn't seem to have anything there. Please, please, please, tell me he's working on something.
T's Grammy (I'm sick of typing both already) at July 11, 2008 6:53 AM
I'm not sure. It was actually just a site to make me laugh. I think Nancy Nall and you and I were the only people who looked at it. In general, Gregg's rather reclusive.
Amy Alkon at July 11, 2008 7:30 AM
I got into the archives via google (going direct just gave the home page and the links that worked before weren't) but, yeah, it's pretty much what I've seen before. But, yep, there's a lot of humor there. One reason I got a kick out of it.
T's Grammy at July 11, 2008 9:35 AM
Hey, I really enjoyed this posting! Your site looks great! If you are interested in any web design feel free to contact me!
Haine Copii at February 19, 2011 12:20 PM
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