First a present an anecdote that got me thinking. If you don’t want to read it skip this paragraph where I explain why you, Anglophone, are a Brit. For the rest of you here it is:
I often go to international student nights and revel in the cosmopolitanism. Somehow I feel more at home in such surroundings than more homogenous social events. Anyways I was sat with an American friend and was chatting away to a Japanese student, and during this conversation I told her I was British. After a short while I turned to talk to my American counterpart (in English of course). The Japanese girl, not having a good ear for different accents in English asked my friend if he was British too. ‘No, I’m American’, he said. At which stage I jokingly added ‘Well, it’s the same thing!’ At this stage my friend, slightly offended turned to me and said ‘actually, I’m Polish-Ukranian!’ I found myself highly bemused by such a comment and retorted ‘Mate, I don’t have a single drop of English blood in my body, that doesn’t mean I don’t belong to this realm!’ At that stage he went to get a drink but how I wish he would have stayed so that I could have interrogated him about the ‘roots’ he was so quick to bring up.
I find it out and out daft when Canadians and Americans think that just by having surnames which are not common in Britain they are in no way connected to Britain. Almost always the name stretches back far too many generations or there are too many nationalities for the person to have any connection to. Most of the time they can’t speak a word of the language and I remember meeting a ‘Greek’ that could not name a city beyond Athens. Was hilarious and poignant at the same time. Some of you at this stage may argue that ‘fair enough we’re not necessarily the ethnicities we claim we are, but we are 100% American. Why the emphasis on Britain?’ Well dear reader that thinks like that, I’m glad you ask.
If your legacy is America, think of where that legacy itself comes from: the coloniser. The language, the attitude (see the next post), the culture. Yes, different cuisines came across from wonderous Europa but it’s no secret that when they were ‘Americanised’ they lost a lot of flavour and were filled full of sugar and fat. What cuisine does that remind me of? Yes, British food (which to be honest I don’t really like, I prefer the food of the motherland hands down)! Blues music is heavily based on English folk, and if you don’t believe there’s reams and reams of work done by music professors on the subject. And attitudes? Well just read the next article to understand how the British and American psyche are more alike than you may like to admit. And yet people over there hesitate to call themselves British, even if they do genuinely have British blood in them. ‘Anglo-Saxon’ was the word used by one counterpart. My friend, the settlement my town was built on was ‘Anglo-Saxon’, but that was more than a thousand years ago. We’ve been British since then!
Does it make that bitter pill ‘colonisation’ easier to swallow? It’s nice to say it was ‘the British’ that brought over the smallpox blankets, that had nothing to do with you I suppose. Well everyone was involved so I’m afraid that you don’t get off so easily. That goes for any Australians and Kiwis too: being part of the settlements means you were involved with the Empire, live with it, don’t finger the blame on people who live thousands of miles away and claim you’re bereft of sin. If you take my roots (which I am very close to might I add!) into account, you’re in the same bracket. Sorry, it’s just something you’ll have to live with. Condemning is one thing, to say that it was ‘them not us’ is another. Stop it!
In essence, enjoy your roots, nothing wrong with that. Just don’t disown the one nation that, more than any other makes up the culture of yours. It’s just silly. We’ve been allies for so long that it shouldn’t even matter. Here’s to continued cultural nourishment on a more equal plane.
Regards,
The Vedic Underdog
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