Roger's Rules

July 7th, 2008 2:40 pm

Is your baby racist? or Yuk and Double Yuk to you, buster!

Does he (or she) like hot tamales? No? How about Chicken Vindaloo? Or scrambled eggs with hot sauce? If not, she (or he) may have IRS–no not that IRS, but another one that is almost as dangerous: Incipient Racist Syndrome.

Think I am making it up? Check out this story at the London Telegraph:

Toddlers who dislike spicy food ‘racist’

The National Children’s Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.

This could include a child of as young as three who says “yuk” in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.

The guidance by the NCB is designed to draw attention to potentially-racist attitudes in youngsters from a young age.

It alerts playgroup leaders that even babies can not be ignored in the drive to root out prejudice as they can “recognise different people in their lives”.

The 366-page guide for staff in charge of pre-school children, called Young Children and Racial Justice, warns: “Racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships.”

It advises nursery teachers to be on the alert for childish abuse such as: “blackie”, “Pakis”, “those people” or “they smell”.

The guide goes on to warn that children might also “react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying ‘yuk’”.

The scariest bit, as my wife points out, comes at the end:

“Some people [says an NCB guide] think that if a large number of racist incidents are reported, this will reflect badly on the institution. In fact, the opposite is the case.”

Why? One reason is that the more reported incidents of racism, the more work for the NCB.

This garbage isn’t worth dignifying with a response, only caustic ridicule–Yuk is a mild expression that comes to mind–but it seems to be spreading, so let me just quote these words of wisdom from Sidney Hook:

As morally offensive as is the expression of racism wherever it is found, a false charge of racism is equally offensive, perhaps even more so, because the consequences of a false charge of racism enable an authentic racist to conceal his racism by exploiting the loose way the term is used to cover up his actions. The same is true of a false charge of sexism or anti-Semitism. This is the lesson we should all have learned from the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Because of his false and irresponsible charges of communism against liberals, socialists, and others among his critics, many communists and agents of communist influence sought to pass themselves off as Jeffersonian democrats or merely idealistic reformers. They would all complain they were victims of red-baiting to prevent criticism and exposure.

Indeed.

Hat tips to Instapundit and Jonah Goldberg, whose daughter doesn’t like Salsa (neither does our son).

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12 Comments

1. John Ford:

We adopted our five-year-old daughter from China and she doesn’t like Chinese food. Are we failures as parents given her disturbing lack of a true multicultural perspective?

Jul 7, 2008 - 5:15 pm 2. Zhombre:

I am sure that in the near future, children showing signs of Incipient Racist Syndrome will be effectively treated with mandatory counseling, aversive conditioning and a prescription drug regimen. Some cases of course may require removal of the child from custody of the parents, who are obviously unfit and are poorly socializing their progeny.

Jul 7, 2008 - 6:22 pm 3. gavin:

one boy likes his curry hot
the other boy does not
the girls are too polite to say
and may or mayn’tot any way
these products of my loin thus
are also fussy about asparoguss
the point i try to feebly make
is brats are fussy even about cake.
and when you let them home again they cry about the beer and whiskey supply.
(ok thats abit harsh, the boy buys his own beer)

Jul 7, 2008 - 7:27 pm 4. William M. Briggs, Statistician » Another increase in moronicity:

[...] story has been making the rounds (I first heard of it from Roger Kimball’s blog). It’s so incredibly asinine that it deserves broad [...]

Jul 8, 2008 - 3:39 am 5. ricpic:

Speaking of Chinese tots: are they racist because they cannot tolerate dairy? Or is this strictly an occidental thing? I think we all know the answer.

Jul 8, 2008 - 6:44 am 6. Robert Mills:

Idiocy of the lowest and most debased form is the only worthy comment on this idea of idea of racism. Tax payers money is spent on this? What uselessness.

Jul 8, 2008 - 11:15 am 7. Robert Mills:

Idiocy of the lowest and most debased form is the only worthy comment on this idea of racism. Tax payers money is spent on this? What uselessness.

Jul 8, 2008 - 11:16 am 8. Steynian 192 « Free Mark Steyn!:

[...] Toddlers Required to Like Foreign Food or risk being reported to the authorities. Kimball: “Is your baby racist? or Yuk and Double Yuk to you, buster!” Some more wisdom from the author of said guide. And [...]

Jul 8, 2008 - 12:50 pm 9. Lee Hamilton:

Good grief! What are we coming to?

Jul 8, 2008 - 7:43 pm 10. BeenThere DoneThat:

This guide was clearly written by people who have never actually raised children. I listened to the “yuk” response whenever I served asparagus for YEARS. I never crossed my mind that my black children were racist because I could not get them to like asparagus. It has never crossed my mind that I am racist for not liking chicken vindaloo; rather, I always thought of it as a reflection of my vegetarian dietary preference. Then again, I don’t like lychee nuts! Does that mean I have unconscious anti-Asian sentiments? Should I seek counselling? Will the National Health Service provide me with private psychiatry sessions to uproot this horrible “problem’ of mine?

I find cricket BORING in the extreme. Am I guilty of anti-British cultural hegemony? I’ve never thought about it before…

WAIT! I can’t tolerate watching films with subtitles! I MUST BE A HORRIBLE PERSON! Call the poe-leeeeeece!

And here I thought CARTOONS were just products of the imagination! I must take up reading British legislation in my spare time. Clearly, the British parliament is bent on giving hilarious author Tom Robbins a run for his money!

Jul 9, 2008 - 4:25 am 11. anthropogenicagent:

I will never read the 366-page guide. It seems laughable or is it insidious. Perhaps the study is making the claim that racism is not so much a matter of choice as a systemic problem to be rooted out. (These children are defective by nature.) Are we a looking at a subtle form of eugenics? The deep-seated socialist’s dream… We must abandon individual rights for the good of the state. Follow the guide, it’s the duty of every staffer at the National Children’s Bureau.

Somebody stop these people.

Jul 10, 2008 - 12:32 pm 12. ehunter:

Britain…A Sinking Island..indeed. Soon, very soon Britains one strength left namely North Sea Oil will be gone. The fields are nearly
depleted. The economy that made possible the Welfare State and supported millions of third world immigrants will be gone, what will be left is third world squalor, and racial tension that will turn savagely back against this daydream world of the liberal left.

Jan 20, 2009 - 5:44 pm