hate crime....

[Big Paul]

This is a hat I wear at work.

The point is that why should people have to put up with it? If you are strong enough to withstand it, good for you. History has shown that one, or both, of two things will happen: they'll find somebody weaker than you; or they'll get a bigger mob than yours. Silence has never worked for long.

I see enough people sick from stress, taking time off, getting disciplined for absenteeism, or out of the department. Let the aggressor take the heat, and do the time.

A story my mum told me as a child: when Hitler was a child, someone made a joke about the Jews, forty years later....

And, yes, English/Scottish rivalry is still very strong, and sometimes people get carried away. They have to be stopped.

(It's not racism. It is harassment based on nationality or place of origin.)

Very well put!

[windowlikcer]

thats just like the english isnt it... although for some reason i doubt they were "intimidated" by some english girls singing stupid songs...

[Kid Cossack]

This is a hat I wear at work.

The point is that why should people have to put up with it? If you are strong enough to withstand it, good for you. History has shown that one, or both, of two things will happen: they'll find somebody weaker than you; or they'll get a bigger mob than yours. Silence has never worked for long.

I see enough people sick from stress, taking time off, getting disciplined for absenteeism, or out of the department. Let the aggressor take the heat, and do the time.

I'm not sure I've always been silent! There have been, I believe, only three real times I was mocked when kilted. One fellow called out "You must have put your wife's clothes on this morning!" I replied, "Dang, man, that's funny. Did you think of that yourself? I don't think I've ever heard anything that funny."

Another time three youths at a Pizza Inn were mocking me while wearing their gimme caps indoors. I said, "I was taught that gentlemen remove their hats indoors, and if you're not a gentleman, I could care less what you think."

The third time a lout made assumptions aloud about my sexual preferences. I replied, "Well actually, no. But if I was?"

I don't believe in silence in the face of bullying or taunting, and I certainly didn't intend to imply that I approved of the bullying. Several times I have told bullies to "stand down" when they were picking on others, including times when I defended "the other" against "my own" if you take my drift.

If I felt that I could not handle bullying on my own, I suppose I would turn to the duly constituted authorities. Perhaps, as a Celtic mutt, an American, and a Texan (and, further, all the other little things that go into making me who I am) I am simply loathe to admit that there are things I cannot handle?

I'm not bragging on how tough I am or what a swell fellow I am, but I do prize courtesy, both as a social lubricant and as a measure of grace.

I think the ideal outcome would have been for, as mentioned by another poster, some Cumbrian footballers to have firmly called the English hooliganettes to account and explained how they were dishonoring themselves and their region by their behavior.

Sorry to babble on!

[Braveheart88]

I've never been mocked to my face (the only time anyone has ever made fun of me was at the Library a couple of weeks ago and they were in the next row of books giggling about "the dude in the dress") so I don't know how I would handle it to be honest.

The boys in the pipe band should have started to play a male supremacy song, if there is such a thing

[possingk]

young girls and a youth pipe band? the lads are pipers and drummers musicians and well drummers, they will be fine when the little girls are done picking on them, they did what they felt they had ti, and good on them for doing so, but we have all dealt with idiots, and their best response to is to say "I hope that you are never at a funeral where a piper has to play but if you are think about what that piper is doing and feel and think of how you just treated us you us?"

oped:
at some point those "girls" will leave their husbands for a real man, that man will be wearing a kilt"

[turpin]

Somewhere in this story there is a Monty Python skit waiting to get out. I see a French soldier taunting King Arthur......

[slohairt]

I guess it's something we Americans, or we Texans, or maybe just this Texan, have/has trouble understanding, the "racial" aspect of it.

I suppose I paint the race lines with a very broad brush, and I (or Americans, or Texans, or once more just me) never really thought of the Scots and English and Irish as different races---at least in the modern, bureaucratic, anti-discrimination type way.

Then again, when I was first in Central Asia, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the distinctions between "nationality" and "citizenship."

My take on the situation is that it's just bad joss all the way around, from the English lassies taunting the pipe band to the official police reaction.

Dia Dhuit!

That does seem to be a common consensus in North America I've noticed. Unfortunately, generalizing different cultures is not often a good thing. It can be especially insulting when one equates the conquered with the conquerers!

When asked at job interviews (or other situations) what additional languages I speak, I'll reply "Irish." Nine times out of ten, I'll receive responses like "what's that? I didn't know they had a language." or they'll make a joke of it saying things like, "top o' the mornin' to ye!"

Reinforcing racial/cultural differences is often viewed as negative, but it CAN be positive. By reinforcing your culture's differences with a neighbouring culture, you force people to actually learn something of it instead of subscribing to stereotypes.

But you're right, crying to the police about some girls making fun of you whilst piping? Man, I bet there were some laughs at the station that night!

On a related note, I remember a particular instance which happed to me: I was leaving my apartment wearing my saffron kilt and full regalia off to a wedding. A young black man said to me, "Where's your f**king bagpipes, h*mo!" (Beavis and Butthead-esque laughter then ensued from his cohorts.) I replied "Right where you left your bongo drums, brother!" He then got angry and said, "That was really racist!" Apparently the irony was lost on him.

DISCLAIMER: I, of course, have nothing but great respect for African cultures, and, as a musician, find their traditional drumming styles particularly fascinating.

[Martin S]

(It's not racism. It is harassment based on nationality or place of origin.)

What's the difference? Since "scientists" have proved that "races" do not exist, "racism" can be defined as negative attitudes to any category other than one's own.

The thing is that teenage girls are ready to do just about anything to attract attention to themselves. The only rudeness I have ever enountered in public (just rudeniess, not abuse) has always been from silly giggling teenagerettes. I think nature has programmed them with mate-attracting strategies that are often quite anti-social.

I'm not claiming to be attractive in any special way to teenagers; their loud-mouthed manners serves to draw the attention of everyone else in the street.

Nature has only one aim: reproduction

Martin

[highlander_Daz]

my business requires me to travel to the north of England and other parts and Ive never experienced any taunts or insults aprt from one one occasion from a lad of about 14 on a buke rideing past accusing me of being "a puff" because of my kilt, being very fond of cream puffs i considered it a compliment !!

on occasion good natured banter can be a laugh but with the addition of drink sometimes things can get silly, accusing a bunch of ned girls of "racism" fro some daft comments and a water bomb is a bit thin skinned, some good old anglo saxon insults would have done the trick or the organisers should have thrown the neds out as they would have been as quick to torment the morris dancers or the pancake tossing demonstration.

[Mike1]

This thread has all the potential for veering into ruin, so please consider any reply you choose to make very carefully.