(no subject)

[o-honeybee-o.livejournal.com]

I work as a teaching assistant (in the UK) between 2 classes of 4-5 year olds, so here's their names!
I've put an * next to the names of the children who are ethnic, just so you know!


Girls
Jessica
Faye
Eve (x2)
Sofia *
Hafsah *
Sophie *
Amina *
Manpreea (She's mostly just called Prea though) *
Zahra *
Anna
Hannah
Millie
Sophya *
Jessica-Leigh
Megan
Lucy
Sarah
Zafira (zah-fee-ruh) *
Robyn
Poonam *
Zaneib *
Holly
Aiysha *
Faith
Sadie
Niamh
Amarni *
Aliza *
Ariana *

Boys
William
Rayhan *
Joseph (x2)
Naheem *
Abdullah *
Shakeel *
Ellis
Andrew
Benjamin
Zachary
Aaron
Bilaal *
Jake
Lewis (x3)
Wajaahat * (Wah-jar-hat)
Shakeeb *
Hyder *
Lennon
Nathan
Sukleen *
Ben

Comments

[tokossel.livejournal.com]

are you serious? my name is zahra and i'm british. i'm pretty sure all of those kids are being brought up in britain, regardless of their cultural backgrounds. 'british' is a nationality, and it seems to me that in this case 'ethnic' basically means...not white. i might be wrong, the wording used here just really bothers me.

[qalanjo.livejournal.com]

I don't think the OP meant it in an offensive way at all, but I read it the same way too. The word "ethnic" is misleading in general, you hear it all the time. "Ethnic foods", "Ethnic clothing"...but isn't everyone ethnic? I think in this case it is might mean, well, of a cultural background that is a minority in the UK (whether they are British nationality-wise or not).
Hmm ;/
Again, no hard feelings to the OP, because people use "ethnic" this way all the time - usually not even thinking about the connotations, and I understand.

[tokossel.livejournal.com]

i know she probably didn't mean it in an offensive way, but that doesn't mean it's not offensive to some people.
also, if you look up the word 'ethnic' (yay for dictionary.com, i'm such a geek!) it also means 'heathen'/'pagan'. and like i pointed out previously, if you look at the names with a * next to them, at least 3 different cultural backgrounds are represented. i don't think it's fair for them all to be classified as 'ethnic'. i don't know.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Alas, "minority ethnic", often shortened to just plain "ethnic", is a phrase alive and well in UK officialdom meaning "not white-British". It makes me wince too. Everyone's "ethnic" (a member of an ethnic group), just as everyone's "coloured" (my skin isn't transparent, last I looked).


[That said, a friend teaches primary in East London and half her class aren't British by any definition. Some of them haven't lived in the country longer than six weeks; some of them won't still be here by Christmas (deportation in most cases, unfortunately). I don't imagine that's the distinction the commenter meant, but it does exist.]

[tokossel.livejournal.com]

you don't look transparent to me either! :)
i don't mind 'ethnic minority' so much, it's more straight-up, because the ethnic majority in the UK at least is white and so it would make sense that ethnic minorities be non-white. but i don't know, same thing really, it's such a broad term for so many different people.

that probably wasn't the distinction that the commenter meant. i've just met several british poonams, aiyesha's, and abdullah's. there are probably more people in UK with those names that are here to stay that people that are about to be deported, you know?

[cluckydude.livejournal.com]

The wording here bothers me. I'm ethnic - my ethnicity is white anglo-franco-Canadian mutt.

EVERYONE is ethnic.

Just like white people are white, not people. Y'know?

Interrogate your own (presumed) whiteness, OP!