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quote:Originally posted by Brenden Simpson:
I think you owe the right-wing an apology for calling their propaganda bullshit, bucko.
Please carefully read the links, a search under the term 'winterval' will produce a lot more material as well, note which pertain to primary or secondary source material. At no point were Birmingham City Council talking about actually changing the name of Christmas itself. Winterval was an in-house term produced to describe a period of organised festivities running from November through to January. This was previously called The Christmas Period. The Council, recognising the inadequacy of this term in describing a period that included entirely secular festivals like Bonfire Night and New Year's Eve, as well as a whole host of non-Christian festivals, decided that the term should be altered to something less exclusive, something open to the full range of festivities offered.
The right-wing press (most notably our old, favourite, shit-slingers, the Daily Mail) waged a war on the basis that they were trying to 'ban' and 'change the name' of Christmas. Bishops, priests, reverends, pundits and politicians got on board, all happy to revel in the media hyperbole and confusion. It was indeed used as an example of 'political correctness gone mad', that ethnic minorities were coming over to our country and trying to change our traditions, that all city councils were clearly run by black, disabled, lesbian, feminist fanatics, that the very fabric of British life was threatened. All in the face of evidence that clearly pointed to the opposite.
And all this time Birmingham City Council was still quietly going about its business; arranging for Christmas trees to be set up in the city centre, for carol singers and church-based events, for people to be able to send free Christmas e-cards from their website and for Christmas lights to be strung through the trees.
Of course this in no way prevented villification by a nation not even in possession of the facts. So they folded. They changed the name back. And one more attempt to make the world a better, more inclusive place for everyone in some small way was snuffed out. What makes it especially difficult to bear is the fact that this story was repeated to me so recently in the 'ethnic minorities trying to take over' style as if it was gospel news. By someone I quite like. That this bit of non-news is still being repeated three years after its cancellation as evidence of the cultural siege that white, Anglo-Saxon Britain is undergoing. As an excuse for more intolerance, more racism, more poorly directed anger.
It makes me unutterably depressed and coldly furious. |
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