Black poppies not me

[kidley]

is the red poppy only for white solders then?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/remembrance/how/poppy.shtml

Edited November 10, 2016 by kidley

[Petminder]

Did you read the piece you responded to?

 

Yes, why do you ask?

 

It was intended to highlight the contributions of non white soldiers, which when I was at school were never mentioned or celebrated in the media.

 

I find it hard to believe that your school only told about the white soldiers that died.

[froger]

Colour should never get mentioned they were all soldiers who fought for our freedom.

[sgtkate]

Colour should never get mentioned they were all soldiers who fought for our freedom.

 

Absolutely agreed. I'll be honest when I was learning about history it didn't cross my mind to specifically think about the colour of a soldier who died, simple that they had died. I suppose in my head I probably did picture a white soldier simply because that was my world. If a textbook had a photo of a black soldier in it I wouldn't have even noticed as it just wouldn't have been anything of any consequence to me. I think (well I hope) most people would think the same. At no point would something think a poppy doesn't reflect the contribution made by non-white soldiers, of course it does, but it doesn't need to be stated explicitly, why would it?

 

I do agree that often history does airbrush out non-white achievements, but the poppy isn't one of those things. As I said earlier, I actually disagree entirely with what the poppy stands for, however there just isn't a race angle on this that I can see.

[melthebell]

Absolutely agreed. I'll be honest when I was learning about history it didn't cross my mind to specifically think about the colour of a soldier who died, simple that they had died. I suppose in my head I probably did picture a white soldier simply because that was my world. If a textbook had a photo of a black soldier in it I wouldn't have even noticed as it just wouldn't have been anything of any consequence to me. I think (well I hope) most people would think the same. At no point would something think a poppy doesn't reflect the contribution made by non-white soldiers, of course it does, but it doesn't need to be stated explicitly, why would it?

 

I do agree that often history does airbrush out non-white achievements, but the poppy isn't one of those things. As I said earlier, I actually disagree entirely with what the poppy stands for, however there just isn't a race angle on this that I can see.

i think there is to a certain extent an airbrushing of history. Black people dont always get a mention in "our" history, if you see a picture of a soldier from say world war 2 its almost always white? somebody the other day on google+ posted a picture of some sikh, muslim and hindu spitfire pilots. Now tbh if i was to think of spitfire pilots they would be the last to cross my mind, im sure purely because its not something we know a lot about as a nation.

same as i watched a programme on bbc2 last night, the forgotten history of black britons, with the black folks who were in the roman army and in the medieval times etc. one black guy showed a ladybird book about romans (the same book i remember as a kid i think) and all the romans were white.

The black poppy isnt to take anything away from the red ones, or the white british soldiers that died, but to show a little awareness that black folks did aswell, which does and can get overlooked slightly.

[brian1941]

So now we have black poppies to remember black soldiers. Well I'm sorry but I will only be wearing a red one. To me a poppy is for all the fallen no matter colour they are. Why is everything turned to race.

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Hi Froger, I too will be wearing my red poppy, can i ask you a question -

on the poppies is a little green leaf, every time i see people wearing

theirs the green leaf is at all angel. Can you or anyone tell me where

it should be placed, i have mine at 12 o'clock.

[harvey19]

As said before the Red poppy represents All soldiers.

If people are to be made more aware of coloured soldiers contribution do so but in an appropriate way.

Leave this respected form of remembrance and respect to include all soldiers as it has done for over 95 years.

 

---------- Post added 10-11-2016 at 18:41 ----------

 

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Hi Froger, I too will be wearing my red poppy, can i ask you a question -

on the poppies is a little green leaf, every time i see people wearing

theirs the green leaf is at all angel. Can you or anyone tell me where

it should be placed, i have mine at 12 o'clock.

 

11 o clock position.

[froger]

Hi brian1941 just looked on British legion web site and they say there is no right or wrong way to wear a poppy they just want everyone to wear one.

[boyfriday]

Yes, why do you ask?

 

I find it hard to believe that your school only told about the white soldiers that died.

 

The teaching of social, political and economic history covering the period to 1951 was devoid of any reference to black or Asian servicemen during WWI & WWII.

 

Children are inspired by role models and if they look like them it makes the contributions of those role models all the more inspiring. My stance isn't a militant one, I always buy a poppy, had never heard of the black one before coming across this thread.

 

The red poppy is still freely available, the black one I've never seen, nobody's forcing anyone to buy it, this thread is rapidly descending into an example of 'political correctness gone mad' as it appears unseemly to challenge convention or even have a rational discussion about it.

Edited November 10, 2016 by boyfriday

[melthebell]

If people are to be made more aware of coloured soldiers contribution do so but in an appropriate way.

 

erm they have done LOL

 

a black poppy