[Margaret Pilkington]

Stanaccy...I like your last sentence and I think it is very relevant...but as far as saying that some of the phrases you have quoted are insulting and harmful......they are just cliches that are the currency of everyday speech and we should not be taking offence at them, unless of course they are used
pointedly (I'm not sure if you get what I mean by that....but if you were to say to a group of non-white people 'play the white man'...then they might take offence....but then again they might not...it all depends on the situation and the circumstances). I think it is so easy to cause offence by pussy footing around so that the people you are trying NOT to offend, realise that YOU see them as different. Differences should be accepted and celebrated. Multiculturalism has done more to harm relationships within communities than anything else, because some of the methods employed have meant that other cultures have been celebrated at the expense of our own