Activists win, because bureaucracy rules!

In what’s becoming increasingly common, traditional children’s Thanksgiving Day costumes have been banned by a school board because activists have complained:

For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won’t be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.
Parents in this quiet university town are sharply divided over what these construction-paper symbols represent: A simple child’s depiction of the traditional (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal? Or a cartoonish stereotype that would never be allowed of other racial, ethnic or religious groups?
“It’s demeaning,” Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter’s teacher. “I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history.”
Raheja, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote the letter upon hearing of a four-decade district tradition, where kindergartners at Condit and Mountain View elementary schools take annual turns dressing up and visiting the other school for a Thanksgiving feast. This year, the Mountain View children would have dressed as Native Americans and walked to Condit, whose students would have dressed as Pilgrims.
Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without “dehumanizing” her daughter’s ancestry.
“There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype,” she said.

I think that calling the parents “sharply divided” is a bit of a stretch, as the entire “controversy” appears to be the creation of UCR professor Michelle Raheja.
She gets her way because she is an activist, and she knows how to intimidate people. As I’ve observed innumerable times, intimidation works, and it is why activists win.
Ordinary people (like the parents, whose kids just want to have fun) get sucked into these debates and naturally tend to focus on the issue at hand, as if that’s all there is to it. Like the cowardly bureaucrats who cave to the activists, they often fail to see that activists have a much bigger picture. The goal here is not merely to prevent kids from having fun, or even to ruin Thanksgiving permanently.
Rather, it’s just one small step.
These activists are relentless, and seek nothing less than the complete destruction of the enemy, which is of course white American racist imperialism. Professor Raheja’s department, for example, wants Andrew Jackson taken off the 20 dollar bill.
The children’s costumes are just one issue, not the issue.
Unfortunately, the only way to stop activists is to refuse to give one inch. Let them scream and yell and have their tantrums. Let them hurl insults and call people racists, call the cops if they resort to attacks on people or property, and eventually, they might give up. The problem is that politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate executives all subscribe to the philosophy of appeasement. Give them what they demand in order to make the present controversy go away. While this only emboldens them, and they’ll be back later with more and more of their endless demands, it solves the apparent problem right now, so it is very appealing “solution” to those who want to avoid embarrassing confrontations.
Fortunately, parents and this local blog are fighting back at the bureaucratic appeasers:

One aspect of this affair that is entirely despicable is the cowardly cowering by Superintendent David Cash and principals Tim Northrop and Clara Arocha. According to the Times article, “Cash and the principals of Condit and Mountain View did not respond to interview requests.” What’s the matter? Cat got their tongues? These are public employees, and they ought to be willing and able to defend and explain their decisions.
The action starts tomorrow morning at 8 when the parents send their kids to school. At 9, the kids are scheduled to head up to Condit. We’ll see if the teachers have confiscated the contraband construction-paper costumes.

The blog also posts this flyer:
flyerTG.jpg
A poll shows 99% support for the children’s costumes.
Yet even though we think that “democracy rules,” it only takes a single activist to defeat an overwhelming majority.
That’s because in the real world, bureaucracy rules.
The bright side is that the bureaucrats are also intimidated by an angry majority — even an angry majority of non-activists.
UPDATE: My thanks to Fausta for the link, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all!


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21 responses to “Activists win, because bureaucracy rules!”

  1. Drew Avatar
    Drew

    Why would anyone want Andrew Jackson on the currency?
    Because their parents [like their parents before them] thought that patriotic feel-goodery was more important than intellectual honesty and integrity in education and the teaching of history.
    The message of Thanksgiving that people want to teach children, a “tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal?” is a good story with an emotionally satisfying message. But its variance from the historical record is so stark it travels all the way through absurd to border on the realm of criminal propaganda. We don’t need to lie to our children to convince them of the goodness of Thanksgiving. Every time we do, we accept through mental bumbling and furtive evasion the guilt that people like Raheja assign to Americans in general. That guilt and sense of moral uncertainty is the only reason she matters, and insipid nonsense in the public schools is 90% of the reason it exists.

  2. Kevin T. Keith Avatar

    seek nothing less than the complete destruction of the enemy, which is of course white American racist imperialism.
    And you’re against this because . . . ?
    You really can’t defend dressing kids up in feathers and fake paper headbands and having them “act like Indians” as not a cartoonish stereotype, or the “let’s all be friends” version of Thanksgiving as anything other than a fantasy whitewash. As the “activists” you despise so much have pointed out, and as you seem not to notice, having kids dress up as any other ethnic minority and act out a sugar-coated fantasy pageant that calculatedly evades any reference to historically documented oppression, war, or genocide would be the grossest offense. But it seems perfectly OK to you in this context. That is what needs explaining – not why some parents would prefer their kids to learn history that is true and doesn’t require them to perform the equivalent of blackface minstrelsy while doing so.

  3. Alex Knapp Avatar

    I have to agree with Drew and Kevin. Andrew Jackson ought to be taken off the currency, as he isn’t worthy of admiration. And kids shouldn’t be dressing up as racial stereotypes.

  4. Eric Scheie Avatar

    Dressing up as Indians is not only fun, it’s as patriotic as the Boston Tea Party, and as much an individual right as cross dressing.
    If you think it’s “the grossest offense” well, I can think of worse offenses…

  5. tim maguire Avatar
    tim maguire

    I was going to bring it up myself, but Drew beat me to it. I also have a problem with the line describing Thanksgiving as a “tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal”
    Two factions setting aside their differences? No, they were two groups with extensive connections of cooperation celebrating a harvest together. In fact, tensions between settlers and Indians didn’t arise for generations.
    And what is wrong with remembering a positive historically factual event? Frankly, the children with their craypaper costumes are more in tune with what happened than Raheja and some of the commenters here. Yeah, we should spend our entire lives beating ourselves over the bad and ignoring the good as though it never happened. Now there’s a proscription for cultural health!
    Kevin wants to know what’s wrong with it?!? What’s wrong with it is it is a shamelessly dishonest and unfair phrase that slanders millions of good people.

  6. Eric Scheie Avatar

    And how come no one is complaining about the unfair stereotyping of the Pilgrims? The tall hats and white collars were not worn by the people who celebrated the first Thanksgiving!
    http://uspilgrims.wordpress.com/category/background/
    Why people aren’t more outraged by this crude stereotyping, I don’t know.

  7. M. Carver Avatar
    M. Carver

    White men like Ward Churchill shouldn’t be dressing up as racial stereotypes!

  8. mr_oni Avatar
    mr_oni

    “as you seem not to notice, having kids dress up as any other ethnic minority and act out a sugar-coated fantasy pageant that calculatedly evades any reference to historically documented oppression, war, or genocide would be the grossest offense”
    I agree. Michelle Raheja’s Seneca ancestors took great pride in gunning down and slaughtering minority tribes in wars of conquest. Lets make sure they aren’t confused with Squanto who assisted the Pilgrims.

  9. Alex Knapp Avatar

    And how come no one is complaining about the unfair stereotyping of the Pilgrims? The tall hats and white collars were not worn by the people who celebrated the first Thanksgiving!

    There’s no outrage because the costumes aren’t used to DENIGRATE the pilgrims, any more than the ahistorical use of kilts in Braveheart were used to diminish Scots. It’s not just the wrong part, it’s the deprecation of a whole race that matters.

  10. Heather Avatar

    having kids dress up as any other ethnic minority and act out a sugar-coated fantasy pageant that calculatedly evades any reference to historically documented oppression, war, or genocide would be the grossest offense”
    Offense? You just described the state-mandated junior-high “social studies” unit on Islam in California.

  11. Heather Avatar

    Hrm, I tried to post a link, but it appears to have been scrubbed.
    http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2003/cr_islamic_studies.html

  12. Kevin T. Keith Avatar

    Re: Islam social studies
    To begin with, that unit – goofy as it sounds – appears to be intended to convey actual facts, and to give the children real insight into another culture. It doesn’t appear to be intended to deliberately falsify particular historical events, or to mask oppression. And the exercises do not appear to be weird and false mockeries of the culture in question (though some of them may come close). (From the few context-less quotes this right-wing Website gives, the program does sound like it could be objectionable in parts – but it also sounds perfectly reasonable in parts, and obviously intended to convey real knowledge, not distortion. That puts it far ahead of the traditional Thanksgiving dress-up propaganda.)
    I also notice that, in this case, a parent objected and was taken seriously, both by the school principal and by the same sort of shrieking wingnuts who are so up in arms about the idea of taking Native Americans seriously in American schools.
    Of course, what that parent was complaining about was the idea of treating other cultures with respect, not the fact that the school was not doing so. I guess that makes all the difference.

  13. Donna B. Avatar

    The Indians are denigrated by a stylized children’s play costume???
    What sense does it make to tarnish the Harvest Festival that Thanksgiving celebrates by associating it with events happening 100s of years later?
    Should we not celebrate at all because we do it without being historically accurate?
    Are all those whining about native Americans and Englishmen starting out living peacefully together going to give up their pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce this year? No mashed potatoes for you either!
    And what about the whitewash of the behavior later on of various native tribes? They were no more angels than the white men were. Every tribe had a somewhat different culture, so surely we’re going to line them up from “bad” to “good” and point out how some were unfortunately no better than the white man.
    Go read some history books. The pages of the book are black and white, but the story surely is not.

  14. M. Simon Avatar

    Dressing up like Jews? We could use the favorable publicity.
    And Jews and Nazis? Better yet. This time we send THEM to the camps.
    ==
    What is wrong with those people? Kids like to play act. Cops and robbers. Cowboys and Indians. Very popular when I was a kid. The Indian team was always smaller. They hated losing. Cops and Robbers was more evenly divided. Sometimes the robbers won.
    ==
    Dona B.,
    Some were better, some no worse, and some definitely worse. And of course there were the better white men and the worse.
    I read a while back about a Jewish trader who was made an honorary member of the tribe he traded with.

  15. M. Simon Avatar

    BTW the real message of Thanksgiving is that socialism doesn’t work.
    Try teaching that lesson. 🙂

  16. Donna B. Avatar

    No kidding, my friend M. Simon. The Pilgrims’ discovery of the tragedy of the commons has been grossly neglected 🙂

  17. rhhardin Avatar

    John and Ken (KFI) are in their usual outrage mode (outrage brings ratings, a sad radio fact) but do cover it. Podcast page here indexes it.
    I mention them because you might like outrage; and because in whimsy mode, rather than outrage mode, they’re an entertaining program.

  18. ew Avatar
    ew

    The leftist illuminati doesn’t realize that by taking the color and traditions out of American culture, they are not only taking fun activities away from children, but teaching them that it’s alright to be afraid about everything that’s different.

  19. ew Avatar
    ew

    The leftist illuminati doesn’t realize that by taking the color and traditions out of American culture, they are not only taking fun activities away from children, but teaching them that it’s alright to be afraid about everything that’s different.

  20. Carolyn Avatar
    Carolyn

    The First Thanksgiving
    In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
    DO YOU SEE THE SENECA TRIBE ANYWHERE??????? Since when does an immigrant dictate our history and celebrations…?

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