Subjected to 'racial abuse' while kilted - sorry if length and/or content offends

[highlander_Daz]

I was once out with some friends (one of which is a gay man) and a guy from Newcastle (Im assuming by his accent) said something to me about my kilt something about being gay or a poof or something , my gay friend scolded the guy and said "how can he be gay? he hasnt even got a moustach!!!" the Geordie wandered off looking bewildered!

[BonnieT100]

I guess I worry that my kilt will be seen to represent my Anglo Celtic heritage which is obviously along those lines that are historically not in harmony with their Islamic background. It may be seen as an overt symbol that is shouting out my heritage, my pride in same and therefore they might read that as me initiating a non-verbal assertion as to my feelings. I once took an Australian Flag off my car on Australia Day as I was worried it would be considered a target by these Middle Eastern youths that were harassing people on the day.

Wow, this is an example of the world gone wrong. Australia was an English penal colony. You guys still spell your words the same way, and still use the same words for the same items, which we do not. Without trying to sound insulting, you're basically England, south side, with much nicer weather - I'm told - I've yet to visit the southern hemisphere. You live in fear of rampaging Middle Easterners? In my current location, I'm concerned about violence from them, but that's to be expected. There is no reason you should be afraid of showing your heritage, especially when the St. Andrew's Cross still appears on your national flag. Do they live in fear of someone attacking them and thus prevent their wives from wearing the hijab? I'm just of the feeling that immigrants should absorb the customs of their new home, not try to force it to change to replicate that from which they fled.

[auld argonian]

Welcome to Chicago!

This is a hodge podge of ethnic groups. Most of the folks from the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent are the recent arrivals but, hey, what the heck.

A lot of the recent immigrants seem to be cautious and assume that they're going to be treated like "foreigners"...recent World Events don't help. I try mightily to remember that my folks were foreigners too. There was more of an attitude of "assimilate as soon as possible" back then...now it's not so fast. I try to act respectfully toward everybody...some of them are suprised. I get in a cab with a driver who is obviously "not from around here" and say, "...hey...you listen to NPR (seems like every cab driver has NPR on)? I listen to NPR all the time...what did you think of...". Okay...sometimes the guy is from some West African country and I can barely understand him...but I try to focus on the commonalities.

Once, a while back, on the day before the local Highland Games, I was on the commuter train going downtown. I saw a fair being put up and the men who were participants were black and were wearing these distinctive hats with a sort of peaked inner cap surrounded by a turban...some of the guys were wearing djeleba's...and I thought, "Wow...how odd." And then I remembered that I was going to go to a huge gathering of guys who wear kilts, throw telephone poles around, blow into leather bags with shrieking reeds attached and eat sheep guts. Who am I to judge?

I always feel that there are two significant things that can bring people together: food and music. That's why we have so many fests here in Chicago...food and music...maybe a little dancing. Trouble is that they don't have the one big master World Culture Fest that they used to have...now that was a blast and when I was a teen it got all of us together to par-tay!

It's tough but try...more good things than bad.

Best

AA

[BonnieT100]

I'd love to visit. At my next assignment - in a couple weeks - I'll be living at a base that your army visits frequently. We are sort of borrowing their battle space, keeping the highways safe. They set up shop there. I'm looking forward to it from that perspective - maybe they have a piper with them - even though it means losing my platoon, and my current position as commander of a similar base. Oh well, that's promotions for you.