Posted on 06/23/2006 9:42:36 AM PDT by presidio9
London: Charges of racial discrimination came to the fore again in Britain, this time in Bristol, when an angry black mother withdrew her son from a school play in which he was made to play the role of a monkey.
Lorraine Rees locked horns with the Ashley Down Infant School in Bristol, accusing its administrators of being "culturally insensitive" towards her son and another boy, both aged seven..
Rees, 39, and a black musician, said her son, Myles, and another boy had told the organisers of the play that they wanted to play the role of hunters in the production, An Enchanted Island, but instead, they given the parts of monkeys. According to The Telegraph, three white children also played monkeys in the play, though they had requested other roles.
Rees and her white husband Andrew Rees said that they have protested strongly to the school authorities, saying that they had a trying time explaining to Myles how blacks in Britain were often referred to as monkeys, and how he eventually said that he did not want to essay the role.
The school, however, claims that no role was forced on any child. Head Teacher Helen Heap said that she was investigating the charge, but added that Rees was not reporting the facts correctly.
The school has 180 pupils aged between four and seven, of whom a quarter are from ethnic backgrounds.
I hope the white parents complain if their children are cast as ghosts in a school play.
Head Teacher Helen Heap?.............
End of story.
Clearly this school needs some monkey sensitivity training if these little boys and girls are going to hold such negative opinions of them. No doubt they learn these simianist views at home from their parents.
This conduct by the school must be stopped immediately. Why, these children might mistakenly be led to believe that they ARE monkeys!!
Couldn't the school have just picked a different play? Are they really that stupid?
I love monkeys, they're funny. Especially the ones who live among us, smoke cigars and wear roller skates.
Woody Allen recounts how his school put on "Streetcar named Desire" when he was in Kindergarten -- he says he was one of the greatest 6-year-old Stanley Kowalskis of all time.
funny
I was forced to play Santa Claus in a 4th grade Christmas play. I still bear the mental scars to this day.
Exactly which parts? Heads, tails, or those big red bums?
" ... they had a trying time explaining to Myles how blacks in Britain were often referred to as monkeys... ."
nothing like teaching your kid racism at an early age.
I have kids, I've worked with kids, I adore kids. Judging by the age of these kids, I bet they were fighting each other to be monkeys, no matter what the parents say.
then Beaver was given the role of a tree. . .
Outraged by the last minute change, Beaver's parents sued the school district. . . Oh I forgot, it was not 2006
"London: Charges of racial discrimination came to the fore again in Britain, this time in Bristol, when an angry black mother withdrew her son from a school play in which he was made to play the role of a monkey."
Does the mother in some way equate her child with a monkey? I don't get this whole black people/monkey thing. This has got to ne some kind of new, coordinated thing. Jeez, I grew up in the South with as many (or more), black kids as white. There was a lanky black guy at my school who's nick-name was "monkey man". It's not meant or taken as an insult. It was just a nickname given to him by other black kids.
I'm gonna say a black person has some SERIOUS self esteem and identity issues if they engage in this level of paranoia.
"I was forced to play Santa Claus in a 4th grade Christmas play. I still bear the mental scars to this day."
I was Jack-be-Nimble in kindergarten. Candlesticks still scare the hell out of me.
But acting as though this casting is wrong is to make a claim that there is some sort of connection between being black and being a monkey.
This is all silly.
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