Had an incident at school last week!

[blackrosie]

I had an incident at school last week, we were talking about curry being hot and spicy. One child piped up (they are only yr 1) saying that the curry would be "Gora". I do know what that means in Punjabi and it is not what he meant, but they insisted that it meant something else. Do not want to cause a big fussyet , but does anyone out here know what the word Gora, Gore, Gorrah, Ghorreh, etc means?

[naomi24]

I detest political correctness, so also at the risk of being shot, yes, in a nutshell, I do think think in this country indiginous people tread on eggshells more than ethinic minorities. Is that what you meant, princess?

[*Princess*]

tis exactly what I mean naomi, just you can squash it all down into a few words!

[Aprilis]

Keyplus is right; gora/gori does mean white man/woman.

However, as a white woman who had a 6 year relationship with a Hindu man I can tell you we were both subjected to racist abuse from all kinds of people and it can be a term that is sometimes used in a racist context. I know, I was called it enough by Asians, (along with the derogatory, sneering looks) who didn't think I understood what they were saying.

It isn't necessarily a racist term though and a 1yr old child does not understand what prejudice is.

That said, I abhor racism and I get really angry when adults pass their prejudices on to innocent children. I will not allow my young daughter to be influenced by people's racial prejudices and they soon get put in their place if they are racist in front of her.

[Aprilis]

I agree with THECORBYLOON, it was most likely meant in the context he described. I would suppose that the real answer is not in WHAT the child said but HOW he said it.

[Ice.Maiden]

More's the pity that people aren't brought up to think of slight insults as water off a duck's back these days. You can scarcely tell a joke without somebody leaping on it and finding something offensive. How come folk never USED to be so touchy? If all children were taught to accept each other, much of the problems'd go away, but they learn to be "racist" from their parents and older people. None of us are ever going to be all the same, but we should be able to make light of the various words and phrases used by others. Bigotry happens in all of society. I don't think we'll ever get rid of it completely.

[Aprilis]

Oops, just re-read my posts. Meant to say yr 1 child not 1yr old child! Durrrr.

[perigra]

i've worked in the asian community (pakistani) for 12 years now and for the most part my experience has been great, i have many pakistani friends. i speak some punjabi/urdu and get along very well.
however i need to say that some of the most racist people i know are pakistani, primarily older mebers of the community.
if children are being taught racist values, in my opinion they lose them when they have contact with other children from none racist families.

[keyplus90]

Being a Pakistani and my mother tongue as Punjabi. I can assure you that 99% when people use this word they are not using as racist remark. And it is not derogatory at all. It is more as a description. Few people may or may not agree with me but the biggest problem here is that for some reason people have & are becoming ultra sensitive (As Ice Maiden) said. We talk so much about bullying and racism that every little thing manipulates our thoughts. More kids are committing suicides because of bullying as at our times we used to ignore these things as little things between kids.

Once near Christmas I was in a shopping centre and was just trying to squeeze through people. Even I said excuse me but still one man started shouting at me and in the end he called me racist for no obvious reason, until then I was just telling him to calm down. But when he called me racist then I pointed towards my wife who is (White English) and by then had caught me up. I said to him �She is my wife for 13 years and mother of my 4 children� Had I been racist, would I have married her. But he just went on and on and even started saying that my wife may not have understood me. In his mind he understood me in about 3 and half minutes but my wife could not even after all that time.

My best friend where I play cricket is one black (Jamaican). When we are together he calls me **** and I call him Neger. Because we make fun of these words, Any one else may think we are racists but we have decided to devalue these words.

In the end I believe that WORDS are not racist remarks. It is how those words are used. In Pakistan Kala (Black), Mota (fat) are common nick names. Person does not have to be black or fat. It is commonly used among friends.

[keyplus90]

See how seriously we take these words. I even typed that word what my friend calls me. But system here automatically made it look like ****. I actually used first four alphabets from Pakistani.

[daffy654]

I remember watching a cricket match on TV some years ago that was being held in Pakistan,All the Pakistani supporters were holding banners up that said things like GO PAK1S (substituted i for 1 to avoid censoring).I remarked to my fiance that it must be the context the term is used in that makes it racist as the Pakistanis themselves were using it and obviously weren't offended by it.
I do think you may be overreacting a bit here rosie........I was brought up in inner city Leicester so I do know what it is like to live in an area where a large proportion of the population is Asian.

[toby99]

Hi - went to an Indian colleagues house for a meal recently and she had cooked two sepeate dishes for each menu. One was for the Indian guests and one for the English guests - Is this what she meant? It seemed to be the norm for our hostess and we all laughed at how mild our food was compared to her.

Do you think you are reading too much into this?