hate crime....

[Kid Cossack]

Hmm, so THAT'S how the Scots were finally defeated . . . the English sang nasty songs at them! (Hey, where's that "eye roll" smiley . . . ?)

[Kiltedfirepiper]

yeah ...that was kinda my thoughts....but I wanted to wait till someone else posted to see what the tone of the post would be

I've been called some nasty things while wearing my kilt.....have we gotten so thin skinned?

I figure if you "call the cops" when someone is taunting you, then they win...they got to you and that was their goal..... i donno...maybe I just really dont give a R A what people think, and therefore am not affected by it

[Kid Cossack]

snip

I've been called some nasty things while wearing my kilt.....have we gotten so thin skinned?

snip

I agree with you---I've been mocked (a little) while kilted, and mocked on other occasions as well. I never really felt the need to run crying to Mummy about it, and certainly wouldn't run to the police over a matter of words and water balloons.

[Kid Cossack]

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.

[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.

[fluter]

I've been mocked (a little) while kilted, and mocked on other occasions as well. I never really felt the need to run crying to Mummy about it, and certainly wouldn't run to the police over a matter of words and water balloons.

I feel sure most of us here could hold our own.

What makes this incident so bad (as it's reported) is that it was a youth band that was targeted. One wishes that the end of the story had been that the girls' parents, or perhaps a group of large, Cumbrian footballers, had taken them in hand & made them apologize.

[Archangel]

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.)

[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!

[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