Rudyard Kipling

[corydoras]

You've probably seen on the news that students from Manchester University have painted over a mural of Rudyard Kiplings' poem If and replaced it with Maya Angelous' Still I Rise, citing Kiplings' racist and colonialist views, especially in his poem The White Mans Burden.

 

Full story on the BBC site here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-44884913

 

However, should we condemn someone from a different time for his writings? Does he deserve what happened to one of the most famous and inspirational pieces of English literature? Are those students from Manchester Uni just a bunch of whining snowflakes who need to get a life?

 

I guess you can tell where my feelings lie.

"just a bunch of whining snowflakes"

 

I wish you would not write things like that. If your argument is good enough (and it is) then there is no need to make ad hominem attacks. One aught to be careful with snowflakes. One little snowflake on it's own, no big problem Get millions in one place and you might just have an avalanche ;-)

Edited July 23, 2018 by corydoras

[Phone]

Ken,

 

I agree (?) maybe you should re-read my post. They are not British, They are not liberal, and appear to be totalitarianism (is that a word?).

 

Phone

[Ken L]

They are indeed totalitarian but Fatima Abid was born in Manchester and spent a lot of her former years there, before travelling all over the world and attending many different schools. She came returned to the UK to study Pharmacology and Physiology here at The University of Manchester.

She has been on The University of Manchester’s Board of Governors in 2018.

She almost certainly has a British passport and claiming that she's not British in enough to get you lynched by some of these loony lefties.

[rob.imk2]

This thought policing aint just in university's. Its also in my workplace.We arent allowed to verbally abuse each other unless it is "banter".Nicknames arent allowed in case it is offensive. Nearly everyone has a nickname .I have one based on my size and having a big tash I cant sleep at night worrying about the damage it is doing to my self esteem

[chesters1]

Mine was fat bloke ,i am fat and a bloke i see nothing wrong with it.

Now my parents are deat fat bastard is ok ,as they say words cannot hurt you unless ofcourse its guilty or worse fire! (As in a firing squad)

Edited July 22, 2018 by chesters1

[Huge_Vitae]

I have a friend, surname Smith, known as Smithy for many years, 2 Para, lost a leg in the Falkland Isles, rather affectionately known thereafter as ‘Stumpy’, don’t think he picked it, but he is fine with it, lots of people complain but, at the end of the day, it is not, nor ever will be their business.

[Huge_Vitae]

"just a bunch of whining snowflakes"

 

I wish you would not write things like that. If your argument is good enough (and it is) then there is no need to make ad hominem attacks. One aught to be careful with snowflakes. One little snowflake on it's own, no big problem Get milliosnin one place and you might just have an avalanche ;-)

I thought I saw a question and not an absolute statement in that post but I guess google has proven me wrong.

[Phone]

Ken,

diaspora (di ass pora) meaning "to scatter about." Among scholars Jews have the largest diaspora.

 

My mistake, I'm sure she is a British as fish and chips. Every beat of her heart is English. I also have a bridge in London for sale.

 

Phone

[Ken L]

I'm sure she is a British as fish and chips.

 

Phone

 

Ironically, a meal with it's feet firmly in the Jewish culinary tradition....

[Steve Walker]

I like "If". I like the Maya Angelou poem too. It occurs to me, though, that "Still I Rise" is about being the black descendant of slaves in America. Angelou had a horrific early life. She was born in 1928 in Missouri. She lived through the civil rights years. She suffered a great deal of personal hardship. I'm slightly amused by the idea of relatively privileged students growing up in a relatively liberal country feeling that it speaks for them. "If" is more universal, though it may reasonably be pointed out that it is addressed directly to only half of humanity.

 

I think it was chosen simply because it would cause maximum gammon-fury, to be a provocation, rather than because they had thought about what would be most appropriate.