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No more Brownies???


Rye Miles #13621

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Just now, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

In Canada

I have that in the tag line

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Racialized? :blink::rolleyes:

 

Anyway. They do away with the word brownies because that will offend "people of color". Has offended "people of color" for generations, because most "people of color" are brownish.

 

Now they're going to be embers!!! :D

 

But wait a minute. Aren't embers either black or red (depending on whether they're hot or cold)? Won't that also be offensive?

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Remember, it only takes one minority to change the world. The majority is meaningless.:ph34r:

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1 hour ago, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

Well I guess the Cleveland Browns will now have to change their name.

Well they were named after a white man so that’ll confuse them!:lol:

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The ignorance of these folks is astounding.  A brownie is a creature from Scottish folklore; brownie tales were told long before the Girl Guides appropriated the name.  The creatures became very popular in children's literature in the late 1800s and early 1900s; they were widely depicted as non-human and with no defined race. For someone with the Guides to suggest that the group has some racist connection is ludicrous.  Another cultural icon destroyed by imbeciles

LL.

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So do we now need to get rid of words like black, brown, yellow, white and red because they were once upon a time used to refer to a people ? Dam I’m glad I’m old, at least I got to enjoy most of my life with colors in it !!!

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The Brownie Story

 


Where Did Brownies Get Their Name?

 

Have you ever wondered how Brownies got their name? One of our staffers reminded us about a story she’d heard as a little girl as part of her investiture ceremony when she joined her Brownie troop. This made us curious what else we could find out, and we wanted to share with you! If you’re looking for Brownies in the delicious chocolate sense, the best we can do is point you here. But since we’re talking Girl Scout Brownies, we thought it’d make our search easier, if slightly less yummy! Since we knew that Girl Scout Daisies were named after Juliette Gordon Low’s nickname as a child (Daisy), we thought tracking down the Brownie origin would be an adventure, plus we’d learn something.

 

Brownie Origins

 

Once upon a time, the level of Girl Scouting we know as Brownies was called Rosebuds. But the girls who were Rosebuds didn’t like their name, so they asked Lord Baden-Powell (the founder of Boy Scouting, which later inspired Juliette Gordon Low to create Girl Scouting) to come up with a new name. Back to Brownies. Now here’s where there’s a little mystery involved. Most people believe Lord Baden-Powell named the Brownies after Juliana Horatia Ewing’s 1870’s story, The Brownies, about a couple of helpful Brownie children. But did you know that Brownies existed in folklore before that? There are some people who believe that Lord Baden-Powell heard about Brownies in folk tales when he was a child, and that he used the Brownies from those stories as inspiration.

 

So what were Brownies like in folk tales? They were described as small, good-natured spirits or goblins (sometimes called “magical little people”) that would appear during the night and do good deeds around the house, without ever having to be asked to help. They never let the people see them at work, but those who caught glimpses of them described them as very small, with brown hair and skin. And sometimes the Brownies weren’t so nice, they’d set up pranks on the houses they visited! Of course, these pranks were harmless and mostly silly, so nobody minded too much. There are even rumors that a Ukrainian man has opened up a museum all about Brownies!

 

The Brownie Story

 

Though there are some great stories about Brownies in folk tales, we love Juliana’s story and the way she talks about Brownies. You can read her whole story here, but we also found this version which is much shorter and simple enough for even the youngest kids. This quick read is not only fun, but easy to remember so you can share with others!

 

    The cottage on the edge of the wood was in an awful mess. There were dishes to be washed, clothes to be ironed and toys scattered all over the floor. Tommy and Betty didn’t care. They hated boring old housework. “What I am going to do?” their mother sighed. “I can’t keep the cottage tidy. If only we had a Brownie!”

    “What’s a Brownie?” asked Tommy. “A Brownie is a magical little creature, which slips into houses very early before anyone is awake. It tidies toys, irons clothes, washes dishes and does all sorts of helpful things in secret,” replied his mother.

    “That’s great! How can we get one?” wondered Betty. “The Wise Owl in the wood would know I suppose,” her mother said.

    Late that night, Tommy and Betty crept out of the cottage into the wood. It was cold and dark and full of shadows. Or were they ghosts? “We can’t go back. We’ve got to find the Wise Owl,” said Betty firmly. “Twitt twoo. How do you do?” a voice hooted at them from a nearby tree. “The Wise Owl!” Tommy hugged Betty in relief.

    And soon the children were seated on a branch snuggling close to the big bird’s feathers. They explained they were looking for a Brownie. “Do you know where we could find one?” asked Betty. “Indeed I do” hooted the Owl, and, placing her beak close to Betty’s ear, she explained.

    “Tommy, imagine!” exclaimed Betty. “There’s a Brownie in that pool over there. I’ve got to go to the pool over there. I’ve got to turn round three times and say:

    “Twist me and turn me and show me the elf, I looked in the water and there saw…”. “Who? Who? Who?” hooted the Owl. “Look into the water and you’ll find your Brownie looking back at you. Her name will finish the rhyme.

    The children raced over to the pool. Betty did exactly as the Owl had said: “Twist me and turn me and show me the elf, I looked in the water and there saw…” She looked into the pool. “Well, can you see it? Can you see a Brownie?” yelled Tommy, hopping from foot to foot in excitement. “No,” said Betty, All I can see is my own reflection.”

    Tommy and Betty were so tired and disappointed that by the time they reached the tree again, they were in tears. “Boo, hoo, hoo. What’s the matter with you two?” hooted the Owl, offering them a hanky. “We didn’t find a Brownie,” sniffed Betty. “I saw no one in the water but myself.” “Well, well” said the Owl. “Let’s see if that fits the rhyme.” “Twist me and turn me and show me the elf, I looked in the water and there saw…” “Myself!” finished Betty. “But I’m not a Brownie!” “Too true, too true,” hooted the Owl. “But you could act like one for a change and so could Tommy. It would be fun.”
    Photo courtesy of Flickr user Libertygrace0

    Tommy and Betty returned thoughtfully to the cottage. If you had passed that way very early next morning, you would have seen a lamp burning in the kitchen window and two figures busily scurrying about inside. And when the children’s mother came down for breakfast, she couldn’t believe her eyes. There wasn’t a toy in sight. Everything was clean and tidy. “Why, a Brownie has been here. How wonderful!” she gasped.

    From that day to this, the cottage has been a different place. And Tommy and Betty have been like different children. They never get bored now; they are too busy planning their secret good turns. Of course, their mother has discovered the truth. She thinks she is very lucky to have such helpful children. And Tommy and Betty have discovered how right the Wise Owl was: being human Brownies is FUN!

    We hope you now understand why our Brownie leaders are called Owls and where the name Brownies comes from. When we make our promise we go through the woods (the other Brownies pretend to be the trees) and to the pool at the centre of our Brownie ring, where we say the same rhyme that Betty did.

    You may be interested to know that make believe Brownies were supposed to dance around toadstools, which is why some packs have a toadstool at the centre of the ring.

Have you heard this story before? Did you grow up with folk tales about the other kind of Brownies instead?

 

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21 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Well they were named after a white man so that’ll confuse them!:lol:

So was Coon chicken. And they were forced to change their name.

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When I was a little boy there was a story about a cobbler who had to work very hard to make shoes. He had no help and people didn't want to pay a whole lot of money for his shoes so he was very poor.

 

One night a bunch of brownies showed up if his shoe shop and they made shoes all night long. And their shoes were so beautiful and so well made that everyone wanted to buy them, and the cobbler was no longer poor.

 

It was a cute story, and I bet it is still being told today. I also bet that it's not brownies. Probably elves.

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32 minutes ago, Alpo said:

So was Coon chicken. And they were forced to change their name.

I have some distant relatives named Coon. I asked at a family reunion what nationality that was. German,apparently the fine government bureaucrats at Ellis Island when told their name was Kuhn didn't know how to spell it.

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Until this thread, I didn’t know brownies were elves or vice versa. All my childhood references were elves. 

 

I learn something new every day. 
 

I’m constantly amazed by the bottomless pit of what offends people, the vast majority of whom are privileged & white. Won’t be long before black and brown bears will have to be renamed. <_<

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5 minutes ago, largo casey #19191 said:

Hey Rip they can call them S%#t Heads

                                                                            Largo

Or more elegantly Toadies, Lickspittles or Tuft hunters.

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2 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

Are you trying to set points, what timing.:)

It's all in the gap. :P

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2 hours ago, Alpo said:

So was Coon chicken. And they were forced to change their name.

Forced to, or just too damn cowardly to face down the idiots who were attacking them?

 

Lots of others, like Bob's Big Boy, Sambo's, Shaky's, and a host of others.

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Sambo's always tickled me.

 

Little Black Sambo. Offensively racist to all people of African descent. Huh.

 

Look at the story. Little Black Sambo climbed a tree to escape being eaten by wild animals. And he figured out a way to not only prevent getting eaten but to kill the wild animals. Seems like a pretty smart little fella. I guess it's offensive to be smart.

 

And then, the wild animals - they were tigers. There are no tigers in Africa. How could this be offensive to people of African descent? It's obviously about somebody that's not from Africa.

 

In actuality, Little Black Sambo is East Indian. So I can see the Hindus getting upset. Maybe. Or maybe they were kind of proud of him because he outwitted the tigers.

 

But the American blacks - see, people in Africa weren't upset about it, it was the Americans of African descent - they got upset about a story about an East Indian.

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14 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Sambo's always tickled me.

 

Little Black Sambo. Offensively racist to all people of African descent. Huh.

 

Look at the story. Little Black Sambo climbed a tree to escape being eaten by wild animals. And he figured out a way to not only prevent getting eaten but to kill the wild animals. Seems like a pretty smart little fella. I guess it's offensive to be smart.

 

And then, the wild animals - they were tigers. There are no tigers in Africa. How could this be offensive to people of African descent? It's obviously about somebody that's not from Africa.

 

In actuality, Little Black Sambo is East Indian. So I can see the Hindus getting upset. Maybe. Or maybe they were kind of proud of him because he outwitted the tigers.

 

But the American blacks - see, people in Africa weren't upset about it, it was the Americans of African descent - they got upset about a story about an East Indian.

I have a reel of Little Black Sambo on a View Master (remember those?) He ran around a tree being chased by tigers and they eventually melted into tiger butter ! :lol:

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41 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Sambo's always tickled me.

 

Little Black Sambo. Offensively racist to all people of African descent. Huh.

 

Look at the story. Little Black Sambo climbed a tree to escape being eaten by wild animals. And he figured out a way to not only prevent getting eaten but to kill the wild animals. Seems like a pretty smart little fella. I guess it's offensive to be smart.

 

And then, the wild animals - they were tigers. There are no tigers in Africa. How could this be offensive to people of African descent? It's obviously about somebody that's not from Africa.

 

In actuality, Little Black Sambo is East Indian. So I can see the Hindus getting upset. Maybe. Or maybe they were kind of proud of him because he outwitted the tigers.

 

But the American blacks - see, people in Africa weren't upset about it, it was the Americans of African descent - they got upset about a story about an East Indian.

 

   ............ now you're confusing the issue with facts ................   is that racist ?  :huh:  

 

 

 

 

 

:P;)

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seems all these youth institutions are under attack by the woke crowd , as is all christian religions , mostly to push their agenda they lable as "inclusive" by excluding anyone that thinks different , sounds a ittle like germany in the early/mid thirty's to me , wondering a bit how this may turn out for these folks if they ever get what they think they want 

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