Posted on 11/08/2009 11:27:42 AM PST by Free ThinkerNY
To 12-year-old Suzannah Pabla, piercing her nose was a way to connect with her roots in India. To Suzannah's school, it was a dress-code violation worthy of a suspension.
To other Indians, the incident was emblematic of how it can still be difficult for the American melting pot to absorb certain aspects of their cultural and religious traditions.
Suzannah was briefly suspended last month from her public school in Bountiful, Utah, for violating a body-piercing ban. School officials—who noted that nose piercing is an Indian cultural choice, not a religious requirement—compromised and said she could wear a clear, unobtrusive stud in her nose, and Suzannah returned to her seventh-grade class.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Is America going PRIMATIVE?
Will we be celebrating our third would country status like THIS?
The gutless school clowns should not have compromised. I don’t give a rat’s ass where she is from or what culture she espouses. When in Rome, do as the romans do. End of story.
I think they reached a logical conclusion!
“I wanted to feel more closer to my family in India because I really love my family,” said Suzannah, who was born in Bountiful. Her father was born in India as a member of the Sikh religion. “
...
Ever think about GOING BACK TO THEM?
How does disfiguring your face, make you closer to them?
NORMAL people have the person in their herat, not in their NOSE.
Up next....
FGM
(It’s a cultural thing)
Wait, you’re comparing a nose ring with FGM ?
Suuuuure.
(((I’m offended that this girl would dare put this in her nose!
Why am I offended?!? WHY??!
I have no idea, but darn it this is just WRONG!)))
Really, people?
We just hired a young Desi lady with a pierced nose. She actually looks like the actress Ayshea Brough.
It shouldn't have been, said Suzannah's father, Amardeep Singh, a Sikh who was raised in the United States and works as an English professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
What is wrong with these people? How about embracing her American heritage? They have taught their daughter to feel more like an Indian than like a citizen of the United States. This kind of situation brings us one step closer to Balkanization. Another benefit of our colorful diversity.
Has everyone here gone socialist liberal telling people what they can and can not do?
No. Dirt eating MUSLIMS are comparing a nose ring with FGM.
It’s no big deal in either culture.
She'll get over it the second mom and dad bring over some young man's family to visit and see if she is suitible for marriage (about the time she's 15).
So the First Amendment does not apply to minorities? I was always taught what is good for the goose is good for the gander without any reference to the size of the groups.
Yes, she should wear her magic underwear and be like the other students.
No. I'm fairly confident that we're there already...
Witness, rapper extraordinaire - 'Lil Wayne. Who, prior to his most recent felony conviction, enjoyed a long, sit-down interview with Katie Couric of the CBS Evening News - because I'm sure everyone was waiting with baited breath on the musings from this, ahem, gentlemen.
Isn't the RAPE belt buckle especially decorative.
“I wanted to feel more closer to my family ...”
Her father teaches English. He needs to start with his daughter. When she gets that down, she can start with the useless cultural stuff.
Hank
Letting a “stud” mess around with your nose is ..... well...... it’s strange really.
??? Her mother is a Mormon and her father is a Sikh, and they apparently live on opposite sides of the country, with Suzannah living in Utah with her mother.
Melting pot....means you melt into one culture, one way of doing things, one set of laws and traditions; period, end of story. Melting pot also means inclusive to other cultures so they can acclimate to the one culture, one way of doing things, one set of laws and traditions. The word is acclimate, or adjust. I don’t mind her having her nose pierced, but society says that while in school, a common arena for the melting pot, she follows the one culture of rule and the earring comes out. When she is in the privacy of her home or in public places that don’t dictate rules to follow she can have her earring then.
You have to admit it would be fun to watch Utah middle school officials handle a kid who came to school looking like THAT. There would be NO compromises.
They always manage to get together for this sort of thing. I’m sure her time as an IAP will be short though.
Should I not have given my kids Taiwanese middle names? I wanted them to be able to hold part of their culture. Melting pot doesn't mean you forget about your ancestors and your culture.
To each his own but I never understood how one could deface a work of art with tatoos or piercings and call beautiful.
Ding ding, we have a winner.
The school rules are no body piercings. They made an exception for her because of her “cultural” pitch. That’s BS.
In Sikh culture, boys wear conceiled knives —it’s their culture, and that’s fine.
Thing is, they go to PUBLIC SCHOOL in Yuba City (Calif) with them —thousands of them like that.
Multiculturism will destroy any nation in the long run!
I’ve said it before, but since you brought it up, I’ll say it again. Tattoos just make hot girls even hotter.
This is insane. I see American kids with all kinds of shit stuck in their faces. Why worry and fret over a traditional Indian piercing?
I guess if you’re into tramps yes.
Could be but if she's really going to conform, she'll need magic underwear.
to absorb certain aspects of their cultural and religious traditions.
Beside the point but I’ll relate it anyway. Two of my grand children attend public school locally. I went into their school and what do I see prominently displayed? A 3rd or 4 th grader’s art work with a big WWJD, on it. The kids tell me it’s been there all year.
No, that's not what melting pot means at all. My scots ancestors didn't give up their cultural trappings when arriving here. To this very day, many a Scot in a America will marry in a kilt and Prince Charlie Jacket to the sound of pipers. Jewish men wear their yarmulke and celebrate Hanukkah. Being American doesn't mean abandoning your heritage and adopting an anglicized one not your own.
“What is wrong with these people? How about embracing her American heritage? They have taught their daughter to feel more like an Indian than like a citizen of the United States.”
You have very little evidence to support that statement. She may very well be taught to be a proud American. You can teach pride in the US and pride in your ancestry. I for instance was raised to feel like a citizen of the US but to be fiercely proud of my Scottish heritage.
I see three reasonable ways for the school to go.
The way they chose is probably the best way.
Had they permitted her to have her nose pierced, the other children would have to be told that she could, and they couldn’t, because of her heritage. And while the whiners would say “not fair!”, the principal could put their foot down and tell them shut their yap and quit whining.
The issue in that case would have been that for her, having her nose pierced meant something cultural, deep and personal. It was not just decoration. So the school could be unfair, because the her motivation, and the motivation of other students was different.
School is a good time to learn that other kids will get things that you will not get, and you have to deal with it. Whining and complaining about “unfairness” deserves little reward.
Or, the school could have been hard-asses and refused to permit her back in school. Which is a pretty stupid thing to do over a piercing.
Unless you are going around in a kilt with a dirk in your shield, in everyday life, this is a little different.
Yep, and how many American girls have their noses pierced just because they wanted to? Let’s ban pierced ears too and those huge dangly earrings.
I know people with pierced noses and most of the time you don’t even notice it.
“You have very little evidence to support that statement. She may very well be taught to be a proud American. “
If she’s in a public school, that’s a dicey proposition.
How did that song go?
“SHe had rings on he fingers
bells on her toes
and a bone in her nose - ho ho”
Ray Stevens Ahab to A-rab
No, they really don’t. At least when a girl tires of a piercing, she can take it out, the hole closes up, no fuss, no muss. No permanent damage. A tattoo is permanent, and even if they try to go through the procedure to have it removed, you can still see it. It also tends to tell me the girl is, well, trashy.
I went to Junior High with an Indian girl. She respected American culture (I believe she was American-born) and dressed like everyone else. On a cultural/dress-up day, she came decked out in traditional garb (sari), the red dot, and the pierced nose and chain thingie. She looked great. That was the time to do it. Of course, that was the ‘80s before we lost our minds.
Most of the school policies dealing with dress have to do with not wanting a given student to be an undo distraction. You want to dress up a certain way on your own time, hey, that’s fine, but when you’re trying to learn, the facial piercings, low-rider pants and other stuff like that IS a distraction.
Sorry. Everytime I see someone with a nose ring, I do notice it.
American melting pot = screw you America
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