I'm English, British, and European. Many people feel that they have to choose between the three..
No they dont - any school leaver can see that any one individual could be one or even all three depending on which context your being asked - any school leaver
I suppose there is a "romantic" notion of what is quintessentially English that has little to do with reality... Possibly that was the point they were trying to get across.
But in direct response to the question; IMO yes generally if you are born in England that makes you English.
I'm annoyed by the blatant discrimination in the Midsomer Murders business. If white actors have to endure working on that dire programme, I think non-white actors should have to do it as well. Why should they get off so lightly?
I'm annoyed by the blatant discrimination in the Midsomer Murders business. If white actors have to endure working on that dire programme, I think non-white actors should have to do it as well. Why should they get off so lightly?
That's the thing - nobody cared about this programme until the guy opened his mouth. If he'd kept it shut no one would be any the wiser about it's casting decisions.
I'm English, British, and European. Many people feel that they have to choose between the three.
They say you can't be English, but I've been English all my life and suffered no consequences.
They say you have to be British. Most people have enough going on with their lives that they have better things to do than trying to become French if they've never been to France and have no intention of going to France.
Then you get these people who don't want to be European because that is taken to mean endorsing the EU. If I was born and raised in Croatia, I'd still be European.
Though I'm English, I don't support the English Democrats. They are obsessed with making Monmouthshire part of England, even though most English people have never heard of the place.
My black wife, who came to this country in 2004, is also English, British and European. She gets annoyed when those forms with ethnicity/race boxes don't have black British as an option. Presumably their authors think you can only be British if you're white. Somebody should reassure them that the BNP haven't been elected yet.
If you wife only came here in 2004, then she is not English, living in a country for several years doesn't change your nationlity. If I went to live in France for several years I wouldn't consider myself French even if I took French nationalty. Unless your wife was born in Europe then she isn't European either.
The thing that I don't like about those race boxes is that there's only usually one for white while blacks and Asians have 10 choices.
If you wife only came here in 2004, then she is not English, living in a country for several years doesn't change your nationlity. If I went to live in France for several years I wouldn't consider myself French even if I took French nationalty. Unless your wife was born in Europe then she isn't European either.
The thing that I don't like about those race boxes is that there's only usually one for white while blacks and Asians have 10 choices.
I think you're getting mixed up with ethnicity and nationality.
If you wife only came here in 2004, then she is not English, living in a country for several years doesn't change your nationlity. If I went to live in France for several years I wouldn't consider myself French even if I took French nationalty. Unless your wife was born in Europe then she isn't European either.
The thing that I don't like about those race boxes is that there's only usually one for white while blacks and Asians have 10 choices.
What if she was born somewhere else but moved as a baby?
I've got a certain amount of sympathy for non racists who want to keep a sense of what being English is because it is evidently all being mixed up in debates about Britishness and ethnicity etc and I can understand how a) they feel like they are losing their sense of national identity and b) why a minority of them feel moved to over-state their identity by becoming members of right wing groups or in the case of Midsomer man keeping his programme ethnic minority free.
Re defining Englishness would not necessarily be a bad thing and nobody should feel threatened by it but it seems any attempts to assert Englishness tend to come out all wrong.
I've got a certain amount of sympathy for non racists who want to keep a sense of what being English is because it is evidently all being mixed up in debates about Britishness and ethnicity etc and I can understand how a) they feel like they are losing their sense of national identity and b) why a minority of them feel moved to over-state their identity by becoming members of right wing groups or in the case of Midsomer man keeping his programme ethnic minority free.
Re defining Englishness would not necessarily be a bad thing and nobody should feel threatened by it but it seems any attempts to assert Englishness tend to come out all wrong.
What is englishness? Does it ever existed? Is there a national identity? What makes a culture of a country it's not static, there was never a time were people were a stereotype. That's why all the attempts to re-define englishness will always have a whiff of racism. They are a construction and after-thought.
Our culture is different than the French culture, than the Pakistani culture, than the chinese culture etc etc, that's what englishness is, regardless of what melange of influences we have in here.
If an English-born couple move to Australia, have a child, move back to the UK after a year and then have two more children... everyone in that family is English apart from the child born in Australia, even if she has no memory of ever living there?
Wouldn't that make a mockery of the whole concept of Englishness?
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No they dont - any school leaver can see that any one individual could be one or even all three depending on which context your being asked - any school leaver
then she needs to fill out a form made in the last 20 years because they allllll have 'Black British' as an option...
But in direct response to the question; IMO yes generally if you are born in England that makes you English.
Can't say I've ever watched it...
The thing that I don't like about those race boxes is that there's only usually one for white while blacks and Asians have 10 choices.
:eek: wow. Any idea why you think this might be? Is it because them foreigners come over here and get more tick boxes than the locals?
What a silly thing to say.
I think you're getting mixed up with ethnicity and nationality.
No it's, because whites have seperate divisions as well, Anglo Saxon, Celt, Slavic etc.
What if she was born somewhere else but moved as a baby?
Re defining Englishness would not necessarily be a bad thing and nobody should feel threatened by it but it seems any attempts to assert Englishness tend to come out all wrong.
Them foreigners, they come over here and take our jobs, our boxes, and our trainers!!!! :mad:
She still wouldn't be English.
What is englishness? Does it ever existed? Is there a national identity? What makes a culture of a country it's not static, there was never a time were people were a stereotype. That's why all the attempts to re-define englishness will always have a whiff of racism. They are a construction and after-thought.
Our culture is different than the French culture, than the Pakistani culture, than the chinese culture etc etc, that's what englishness is, regardless of what melange of influences we have in here.
So, to restate an earlier post on this thread:
If an English-born couple move to Australia, have a child, move back to the UK after a year and then have two more children... everyone in that family is English apart from the child born in Australia, even if she has no memory of ever living there?
Wouldn't that make a mockery of the whole concept of Englishness?