I think the case nowadays is that we're afraid.
We're afraid of being branded a racist.
My mum runs a pre-school that is government funded, meaning they have to follow STRICT national curriculum guidelines and adhere to ofstead's ridiculous rules.
Stupid things:
She is required to have a traditional muslim/chinese/indian clothing (yes I know muslim is not a nationality, bear with me) in the dressing up box, along with firemen, princesses, etc etc.
What sort of little kid, irrelevant of nationality/faith, wants to dress up as anything BUT a policeman/army man/nurse/superhero.
In the play-kitchen she is required to have a plastic wok.
She has to ask the parents of all the children if they have a problem with a traditional english nativity play at christmas.
she has to ask the parents of all the children if they have a problem with a christmas tree being put up.
she is required to have books on every bloody faith and nationality going.
You know what her problem is?
They
don't bloody care.
The Muslim family, while being strict regarding their faith and eating, don't care about christmas trees. It's a part of British society that they are (and frankly, enjoy) embracing.
The chinese family are exactly the same.
Apart from the one chinese child and the one muslim child, the rest are british caucasian (we live in a predominantly white part of hampshire).
What she
really has a problem with is that the majority of people from different faiths (and I'm talking 99%) don't have a problem with embracing our culture should they decide to live here. It's the fact that people in charge
assume that everyone who isn't British or is of a different faith than Atheism (or lack of

) or Christianity has a problem. And so we must adhere to a ridiculous set of guidelines. We're talking about teaching 2 and 3 year old toddlers about cultural diversity and ethnic minorities. Absurdity at its finest.
What I have a problem with, though, is that we have to ask people of different faiths if it's okay for us to continue with our culture. If it's not, we have to stop it.
Yet if they want to continue with their culture in our country, we have to drop everything and adhere to their requests else get branded a racist.
Prime example, asking if the parents had a problem with the christmas tree and nativity. If they did, and filed a complaint, my mum would be close to getting shut down.
Not allowed a christmas tree in the office in Australia should it offend anyone, but the aboriginy office staff can go walkabout, and there is nothing the employer can do to stop them. Exactly the sort of thing that goes on here.