Most of the teachers and classmates already know Selkie, so the “wait, you’re not human?!” is tempered by “…and we’ve been dealing with her food allergies and swapping food with her for years. If she was gonna eat us, she’d have already taken a bite.”
That line of thinking is far too calm and logical. The few I can see following it are the teachers, possibly a few of the students, probably just the orphans.
The other students and the principal, I’m not sure about.
I would assume her pre-adoption status was “Refugee”. Since then, she’s now a member of the Smith family. That’s pretty much the bottom line of her legal status.
Sarnoth is very much a foreign nation, with the very odd situation of sharing territory with two other powers, at least on a flat 2D map. (Well actually, it seems the human nations have conceded the surface of Lake Superior is more validly Sarnothi, rescinding all fishing rights, but not publically saying so.)
It’s gotten me thinking though. Their civilization is at the bottom of the largest of the Great Lakes, and are fresh-water breathers. With the possible exception of movement between the aforementioned connected Great Lakes, it’s very unlikely that they, at any point in their history, migrated from elsewhere. They evolved more or less right where they are. They’ve therefor been here (on this continent) longer than even the Native Americans.
Not that we’ve historically respected THEIR precedence of living here first either, but it does weaken any of the more ridiculous arguments likely soon to pop up about “Kicking them out of our country”.
I chuckled at the reference, which I thought clever. Wisht I’d thought of it.
Considering that the First Nations Peoples and the American Indians, came over shortly after the last Ice Age, and that during the last Ice Age Lac Superieur was under a mile of ice, and being as water doesn’t compress with any grace what-so-ever, I’m guessing extra terrestrial origins.
But perhaps they have been here a sufficiently long enough time to play the game called, “I stake my claim on this damp bit of dirt for the Glory of the Empire of Sarnoth. You got any gold?”
a big YAY! for miss afkhami for handling the situation absolutely perfect! also because i totally missed her, and now i´m keeping my fingers crossed that we´ll get an awkward talk between her and todd about how to deal with worried kids – and their parents. heck, we might even get another ‘parent/teacher conference of doom’ TM 😉
now lets only hope no one asks selkie why she´s wearing sunglasses and we´re fine….for now.
I actually like this idea. A lot of teachers would just say NO TALKING ABOUT IT and stop any conversation. If Selkie is willing to answer questions about herself, and classmates are willing to be at least not deliberately rude, and teachers will let the dialogue happen, they’ll probably get over it all a lot faster. “Oh, huh, my friend’s a fish-person. Cool,” rather than “OMG WHAT’S WRONG WITH HER ARE THEY GOING TO NUKE US FROM ORBIT WHAT IS SHE NOBODY WILL LET ME ASK QUESTIONS.”
It’s like kids and booze. Kids who get to try a sip of their parents’ drinks or have a wine cooler when they’re teenagers don’t end up treating it as something Super Special later. It’s the kids who don’t get to know what it’s like, that go apeshit in college.
Very much this! I have a much younger sister and my adult brother and I were having dinner out with our folks and little sister one time and we all ordered margaritas. My sister wanted to try one since it looked like some sort of slushie to her and our dad was all “no way” when she asked for a sip. I promptly said “no let her try it, she won’t like it and she won’t think alcohol is some magical thing”. He actually just shrugged and said whatever, so I gave her my glass and she took a big sip and said “Oh this is kinda- UGH! Bleagh!! It burns!!” and she gulped down her soda and told us we were all crazy for drinking that gross burny stuff. It was both funny and I think effective, she’s old enough to drink now and has a much healthier relationship with alcohol than my brother (who was sneaking out of the house to drink at age 14).
Like, in fairness? if I ever got a sip, it was before i could form memories… in my thirty years, I’ve had 4 glasses of wine(1 when my sister was sampling wines for her wedding, and 3 at the reception), 4 hard apple ciders, and two Bud Light Pineapple Rita(( I should prolly chuck the rest of that six-pack)… all the rest of the alcohol I put in my mouth was swiftly aerosolized when I couldn’t bear to swallow it.
what turned me off is my grandfather’s Manhattan habit. He’d make one at lunch, have two sips, and then PUT IT IN THE FREEZER for later. When he moved in after being diagnosed with non-specific dementia, the kitchen stank of vermouth from noon until dinnertime.
It has always been Marla B. Sanderson Elementary, but the only reference in it is a meta one. In-canon Marla was a former mayor of the city. Out-of-canon, she was a character in one of my first attempts at running a webcomic. It was very bad and before anyone can ask, it isn’t viewable anymore. The website went down years ago and I lost the artwork from it in a hard drive failure.
I can recall a few instances where this same announcement was made at my children’s school. Generally after events that school officials knew would bring racial tensions to the forefront of adults conversations at home, the election, presidential tweets concerning immigration, the wall, the Nazi rally in Charlottesville, etc. It’s a standard response at that level. Remind the kids that we’re all a team and hopefully they’ll keep acting like one.
I do agree with the message but the delivery is one that could rub people the wrong way. I preffer straightforeard communications instead of this kind of “corporate speak”.
Bingo. Glad someone gets it
These problems literally only exist because of this kind of thing. It came first, the actual problem it tried to solve was only created afterwards.
The problems were already there. It’s just that certain (mostly white) people erupted in puerile rage when confronted with the notion that they might somehow have been less than than saintly.
Your condescending attitude here is the very same one from “decent people” who kept calling out Martin Luther King for “making things worse” and implying that he needed to object more “politely” or they wouldn’t be his allies anymore when, in truth, they never were.
Really, it’s just adults who seem to have a problem with it. I think the biggest issue is when that’s all teachers/adults say, and leave it just as that. Children have questions, and differences *do* matter—especially to the ones who are different.
So most young kids adapt well to the idea of diversity—and having it brought up is not bad at all (especially to those who are afraid or don’t understand). A wonderful example of this can be seen in the videos of the conjoined twins Britney and Abigail who have become teachers. Their students seem to love them, and the teachers and principal discuss how they had that talk. Part of it, though, is the school (and the twins) let the kids participate and ask questions (versus talking at them—a tactic that doesn’t work well for anyone…child or adult). I think that could be important for Selkie (and all Sanorthi children) as well.
Yes — just answering kids’ questions without holding back does a lot to get across the idea that there’s nothing wrong with being different. However, that’s a lot easier to handle when the “diverse” person is an adult.
I expect that Miss Afkhami will manage the immediate classroom situation pretty well. The problems are more likely to come at recess or lunchtime.
Oh yeah, that was my first thought, Dib trying to convince the class “He’s an alien! Look at him!” And Zim’s all “Boy I love wearing pants!” And that’s the only argument he needs XD
Anyone else find it strange Selkie isn’t more upset about the broadcast—or is it a matter that she missed it? That seemed really ambiguous. I wasn’t sure if Andi and Todd had seen it or not while they were talking. I’m kind of finding this storyline to be a bit confusing.
Sarnoth is just sort of an ambiguous ill-defined thing to Selkie. She wants to know more about it but she doesn’t have a frame of reference for it as “home”.
Interesting side note, because the 14th amendment uses the phrase “All Persons’s” there shouldn’t be any (credible legal) debate over whether non humans can be citizens.
Hey, I know this one. Chapter 1 Title 1 of the US Code says corporations and infants of the species homo sapiens count as people, but it’s not so clear on adults. Most people reasonably infer that the 14th Amendment means natural persons, a term which any dictionary defines as humans. A lawyer could make a case that Sarnothi aren’t legally people, although given the political climate in this comic, no judge would rule in their favor.
As an aside, the Non-human Rights Project has been trying to do what their name says for years. Right now, not even chimpanzees qualify as people, even though they can understand, use, and invent language. There really is a credible legal debate on this subject going on right now.
oooh this’ll be fun xD
I know how you feel, Selkie. I know how you feel.
Something tells me by the time Selkie hits her teen years, she’s going to be the Daria of her high school graduation class…
Wait, now Selkie has a Queendom?
That’s it, I’m declaring myself EMPEROR OF WALES.
(Where?
Who cares?
Wait, whales? so you’re like Aquaman?)
Don’t think you’re allowed to do that unless you learn the language. 😛
Yna ydw i! Fi yw’r Ymerawdwr!
Well, color me impressed!
Popty-ping? Okay, so when do we get to read the biography or Marla B. Sanderson. I’m sure it’s compulsory for students in that school.
Indeed, a truly great Welsh word.
So Dave, is there a back story for Ms. Sanderson?
She’s a former mayor of Calumet City who was heavily involved in the infrastructure of the city’s education system.
It’s in the library but is rarely checked out. 😛
You could always claim Bir Tawil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5iJSXaVvao
The trouble with the land no-one wants is that I don’t want it either!
You’d rather have the Hala’iiiiiiiiiiiiiib Triangle?
Why bother with such obscure and hidden places when I rule Wales?
Wait, why is everyone looking at me like that?
All considering folks are taking it well. Wonder if there has been any response from the humans yet.
Most of the teachers and classmates already know Selkie, so the “wait, you’re not human?!” is tempered by “…and we’ve been dealing with her food allergies and swapping food with her for years. If she was gonna eat us, she’d have already taken a bite.”
That line of thinking is far too calm and logical. The few I can see following it are the teachers, possibly a few of the students, probably just the orphans.
The other students and the principal, I’m not sure about.
All the love. ?
Well considering that Sarnoth is a foreign sovereign state, Selkie IS an alien. She’s a *legal* alien. She’s a fishwoman in Wiscooonsin.
She’s not an alien. She has naturalization papers. https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie101/
She’s an American.
Considering, according to public law, that part of Lake Superior is US territory, she was already a citizen at birth per the 14th Amendment.
You can hear it in her accent when she talks.
(I understood that reference)
I would assume her pre-adoption status was “Refugee”. Since then, she’s now a member of the Smith family. That’s pretty much the bottom line of her legal status.
Sarnoth is very much a foreign nation, with the very odd situation of sharing territory with two other powers, at least on a flat 2D map. (Well actually, it seems the human nations have conceded the surface of Lake Superior is more validly Sarnothi, rescinding all fishing rights, but not publically saying so.)
It’s gotten me thinking though. Their civilization is at the bottom of the largest of the Great Lakes, and are fresh-water breathers. With the possible exception of movement between the aforementioned connected Great Lakes, it’s very unlikely that they, at any point in their history, migrated from elsewhere. They evolved more or less right where they are. They’ve therefor been here (on this continent) longer than even the Native Americans.
Not that we’ve historically respected THEIR precedence of living here first either, but it does weaken any of the more ridiculous arguments likely soon to pop up about “Kicking them out of our country”.
Either that or, and I consider this overwhelmingly more likely until stated otherwise, they’re the descendants of alien colonizers.
I chuckled at the reference, which I thought clever. Wisht I’d thought of it.
Considering that the First Nations Peoples and the American Indians, came over shortly after the last Ice Age, and that during the last Ice Age Lac Superieur was under a mile of ice, and being as water doesn’t compress with any grace what-so-ever, I’m guessing extra terrestrial origins.
But perhaps they have been here a sufficiently long enough time to play the game called, “I stake my claim on this damp bit of dirt for the Glory of the Empire of Sarnoth. You got any gold?”
a big YAY! for miss afkhami for handling the situation absolutely perfect! also because i totally missed her, and now i´m keeping my fingers crossed that we´ll get an awkward talk between her and todd about how to deal with worried kids – and their parents. heck, we might even get another ‘parent/teacher conference of doom’ TM 😉
now lets only hope no one asks selkie why she´s wearing sunglasses and we´re fine….for now.
Of course the kid named Star would bring up alien powers.
I want to know about Star’s “human” powers. You know, like being able to swing on the monkeybars using those weird 5 fingered hands of hers.
And being able to wear shoes straight out of the box.
Star? She thinks the Earth is a pretty great place …
😛 Star is a nickname, and only resembles Star vs the Forces of Evil coincidentally. Star got his nickname because his parents requested that his name not be publicly displayed, such as on the seating chart.
you should probably update Amanda’s last name…
I always assumed his last name was blocked out because his parents tried to name him “Little Bobby Tables”
https://xkcd.com/327/
Meanwhile, I actually typed his name in to this using the SQL syntax from the comic. The comment system did not like that one bit.
I actually like this idea. A lot of teachers would just say NO TALKING ABOUT IT and stop any conversation. If Selkie is willing to answer questions about herself, and classmates are willing to be at least not deliberately rude, and teachers will let the dialogue happen, they’ll probably get over it all a lot faster. “Oh, huh, my friend’s a fish-person. Cool,” rather than “OMG WHAT’S WRONG WITH HER ARE THEY GOING TO NUKE US FROM ORBIT WHAT IS SHE NOBODY WILL LET ME ASK QUESTIONS.”
It’s like kids and booze. Kids who get to try a sip of their parents’ drinks or have a wine cooler when they’re teenagers don’t end up treating it as something Super Special later. It’s the kids who don’t get to know what it’s like, that go apeshit in college.
Very much this! I have a much younger sister and my adult brother and I were having dinner out with our folks and little sister one time and we all ordered margaritas. My sister wanted to try one since it looked like some sort of slushie to her and our dad was all “no way” when she asked for a sip. I promptly said “no let her try it, she won’t like it and she won’t think alcohol is some magical thing”. He actually just shrugged and said whatever, so I gave her my glass and she took a big sip and said “Oh this is kinda- UGH! Bleagh!! It burns!!” and she gulped down her soda and told us we were all crazy for drinking that gross burny stuff. It was both funny and I think effective, she’s old enough to drink now and has a much healthier relationship with alcohol than my brother (who was sneaking out of the house to drink at age 14).
Like, in fairness? if I ever got a sip, it was before i could form memories… in my thirty years, I’ve had 4 glasses of wine(1 when my sister was sampling wines for her wedding, and 3 at the reception), 4 hard apple ciders, and two Bud Light Pineapple Rita(( I should prolly chuck the rest of that six-pack)… all the rest of the alcohol I put in my mouth was swiftly aerosolized when I couldn’t bear to swallow it.
what turned me off is my grandfather’s Manhattan habit. He’d make one at lunch, have two sips, and then PUT IT IN THE FREEZER for later. When he moved in after being diagnosed with non-specific dementia, the kitchen stank of vermouth from noon until dinnertime.
Time for class reports to learn about new countries and traditions! Fun for everyone but the kids doing the work.
Has it always been Marla B Sanderson or is that a nod to the Parkland kids? If it is, kudos to you. If not, coincidence!
Just curious how it would be a nod to the kids from Marjory Stoneham Douglas?
It has always been Marla B. Sanderson Elementary, but the only reference in it is a meta one. In-canon Marla was a former mayor of the city. Out-of-canon, she was a character in one of my first attempts at running a webcomic. It was very bad and before anyone can ask, it isn’t viewable anymore. The website went down years ago and I lost the artwork from it in a hard drive failure.
Less worried about what the kids are gonna do, more worried about what the parents will say to Selkie because they’re scared for their children.
Oh yeah, because ramming diversity down people’s throats NEVER backfires.
They’re young, and if I remember correctly, they adore their teacher. That usually means they’ll at least give it a chance.
Can you suggest a better approach? Diversity exists. Should kids be taught to pretend it doesn’t? …Or shouldn’t?
I can recall a few instances where this same announcement was made at my children’s school. Generally after events that school officials knew would bring racial tensions to the forefront of adults conversations at home, the election, presidential tweets concerning immigration, the wall, the Nazi rally in Charlottesville, etc. It’s a standard response at that level. Remind the kids that we’re all a team and hopefully they’ll keep acting like one.
“We value diversity, and you’re not allowed to harass people just because they’re different. Just a reminder.”
I don’t see how this is “ramming diversity down people’s throats,” and I’m curious what your alternative method would be in this situation.
I do agree with the message but the delivery is one that could rub people the wrong way. I preffer straightforeard communications instead of this kind of “corporate speak”.
Bingo. Glad someone gets it
These problems literally only exist because of this kind of thing. It came first, the actual problem it tried to solve was only created afterwards.
It really, really wasn’t.
The problems were already there. It’s just that certain (mostly white) people erupted in puerile rage when confronted with the notion that they might somehow have been less than than saintly.
Your condescending attitude here is the very same one from “decent people” who kept calling out Martin Luther King for “making things worse” and implying that he needed to object more “politely” or they wouldn’t be his allies anymore when, in truth, they never were.
Really, it’s just adults who seem to have a problem with it. I think the biggest issue is when that’s all teachers/adults say, and leave it just as that. Children have questions, and differences *do* matter—especially to the ones who are different.
So most young kids adapt well to the idea of diversity—and having it brought up is not bad at all (especially to those who are afraid or don’t understand). A wonderful example of this can be seen in the videos of the conjoined twins Britney and Abigail who have become teachers. Their students seem to love them, and the teachers and principal discuss how they had that talk. Part of it, though, is the school (and the twins) let the kids participate and ask questions (versus talking at them—a tactic that doesn’t work well for anyone…child or adult). I think that could be important for Selkie (and all Sanorthi children) as well.
Yes — just answering kids’ questions without holding back does a lot to get across the idea that there’s nothing wrong with being different. However, that’s a lot easier to handle when the “diverse” person is an adult.
I expect that Miss Afkhami will manage the immediate classroom situation pretty well. The problems are more likely to come at recess or lunchtime.
Anyone getting some Invader Zim’s Dib out of Star there?
Oh yeah, that was my first thought, Dib trying to convince the class “He’s an alien! Look at him!” And Zim’s all “Boy I love wearing pants!” And that’s the only argument he needs XD
Anyone else find it strange Selkie isn’t more upset about the broadcast—or is it a matter that she missed it? That seemed really ambiguous. I wasn’t sure if Andi and Todd had seen it or not while they were talking. I’m kind of finding this storyline to be a bit confusing.
Sarnoth is just sort of an ambiguous ill-defined thing to Selkie. She wants to know more about it but she doesn’t have a frame of reference for it as “home”.
Outer dialogue: “Alien Powers aren’ts reals, Star.”
Inner monologue: “Now, if you had asked about my magic powers… Actually, I think you have enough to deal with right now.”
Interesting side note, because the 14th amendment uses the phrase “All Persons’s” there shouldn’t be any (credible legal) debate over whether non humans can be citizens.
Sure there can be. Starting with, what criteria qualify a species as “persons”?
Sad to say I have to agree with Runningflame on this. Some lawyers get paid big bucks to twist the letter and crush the spirit of the law.
Hey, I know this one. Chapter 1 Title 1 of the US Code says corporations and infants of the species homo sapiens count as people, but it’s not so clear on adults. Most people reasonably infer that the 14th Amendment means natural persons, a term which any dictionary defines as humans. A lawyer could make a case that Sarnothi aren’t legally people, although given the political climate in this comic, no judge would rule in their favor.
As an aside, the Non-human Rights Project has been trying to do what their name says for years. Right now, not even chimpanzees qualify as people, even though they can understand, use, and invent language. There really is a credible legal debate on this subject going on right now.
“If I hads aliens powers, I woulds be usings thems on you right nows.”