General Chat

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Reading The Book Thief, one of the selected books for the Greaders last month, I got to thinking about a training day I attended many years ago When we arrived at the venue we found that some of us were being made more welcome than others. A few were greeted by a hostess, handed a welcome pack, and shown through to a VIP lounge where they were served coffee and biscuits Others were told, in a very offhand way, to ‘just wait over there’, and were offered no refreshments All of us had travelled some distance and were looking forward to a cuppa, and were anxious to make use of the ‘facilities’ What was apparent was how quickly those who had been treated in an offhand manner became quite agitated and one or two were very vociferous about the way the way they were being treated. On the other hand, those who had been greeted by the hostess were seen to almost grow in stature, and to be standing round preening themselves, gloating that they had been chosen for special treatment The day had been planned that way to give us an idea of how it feels to be discriminated against, and it certainly led to some heated discussions Discrimination exists everywhere, even now. We discriminate against people because of their skin colour, their religious beliefs, their sexual orientation……. Perhaps if we all stopped and put ourselves into the other person’s shoes for a day we would have a better understanding of how it feels to be discriminated against. That training day I attended made me stop and think, and has stayed in my mind all these years. (Btw I was one of those made to feel inferior, I wonder if it would have made such an impression on me if I had been made to feel superior??)

grey green lol was it done as a experimnt chosen ones watcnrd all day to see if they acterd suc con superpor

Hi Gwen We were kept in the two groups for around an hour, then spent the rest of the day discussing how we had felt Dee x

sent pm if it made sence lol

I got your message Gwen, know what you mean Off out to get the car MOT'd be back later Dee x

I know what it is like to be descriminated against I have been for years by people for being a young mum then a single mum. It is not a nice feeling and at times made me feel extremely low, insecure and unworthy of anyones love and compassion As the years have gone on I have hardened to the fact that if someone judges you before they even know you it is their loss not yours. People can be swayed too easily by stereotypes instead of looking at what the actual person is like. Jax xx

Desrimination,,,,,,mmmmmmmmmmm What i will say is the way in which our government Desriminates against the English, where they deny life saving drugs to cancer patients but are freely available to other parts of the Uk, where we pay £ 6.80 for perscriptions, but are free to others countries in the uk........... where students pay top up fees in England but are free to others in the uk .

You can call it whatever you want David, but in my book i am being descriminated against because i am English by our present goverment, and that is racial decrimination,,,,,no different than Black on white or blue or brown eyes.

Dee...Brown eyes, Blue eyes... were you discriminated by eye colour and if so which way ?

i was trying to be diplomatic David i will explain,,,,many times in the news recently we have seen cases of English people being denied drugs that could cure their cancer, but are freely available to cancer patients in Scotland,,,,what do you call that if not Racial disrcimination.

try telling that one to the person dying from cancer,, that they cant have a drug that is freely available to the people in Scotland but not if your English,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,try telling it to the WW2 pilot that has to move to scotland to get a drug that will save his eyesight.............. your argument is flawed

David without being pedantic - I think Lee was just making a point I know what he means and can think of several other reasons which I won't go into here why he would say that. It may not 'technically' be racial but certainly is discriminative.

so David thats ok is it that English people can die from life threatening diseases, but Scotland can hand out these drugs for free to there population, so why is it that Scottish lives are worth more than English lives. NB I have many Scottish friends and i'm not having a go at the Scottish people,,,, im having a go at our Biased government.

Certainly some interesting points coming out. Gaynor, the people running the course had selected those for the 'elite' group before hand, just by drawing the names from a hat Several of us had travelled together and some of us got the 'red carpet' others were treated like , well the proverbial Jax, when I did the course I was working within the playgroup orginisation PPA and we had to be very aware that we treated all parents and children fairly. Ultimately our treatment of a parent could affect the child in the future. The book I read was about the Nazi situation , and of course at that period in history blue eyed people were thought to be superior, or so we are led to understand Dee x

Dee, what an interesting start to a course. I wish I had come up with that idea for a course. In all my years as Training Liaison officer I never came across it. But what a good way to make a point, and I can see how it affected those not chosen. Having said that, I wonder why more of you were not half suspicious that it was something to do with the course? Or was it one of the first you had been on? speaking as somebody who is hard of hearing, and , not as some people seem to think, stupid, I do appreciate what it is to be discriminated against. good thread! Ann Glos

Hi Ann I was very new to courses of that sort at the time, but I guess some of the people who had been before were probably aware of what was going on, and may actually have been 'acting up' to the situation, to make a point. Dee x

we did that whilst studying R.S at my secondary school. For a whole lesson the blue eyes could sit back, not work and order the brown eyes to do stuff. having blue eyes i thought it was great, but not so great when in the following lesson she reversed it. After that she explained why she had done it. it was a powerful experience andy

It is good though, must tell my daughter in case she has to organise any equality courses, I guess that is where it would work best. Ann glos

You are right Andrew, it does make quite an impact, much better than just listening to a lecture ;-))