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IDENTITY AND STEREOTYPES

 

How do British people identify themselves? Who do they feel they are? Everybody has an image of themselves, but the things that make up this image can vary. For example, in some parts of the world, it is very important that you are a member of a particular family; in other parts of the world, it might be more important that you come from a particular place; in others, that you belong to a certain social class, or are a member of a certain profession, or work for a certain company; in still others, that you belong to a certain political party.

Identity is concerned with how people see themselves, or are seen, in relation to others; as northerners or southerners, football or rugby enthusiasts, opera or blues fans and so on. In short, identity is perhaps two things: who people take themselves to be, and who others take them to be.

Nationality is a matter of allegiance and cultural affiliation. Some people say that your nationality is indicated by where you choose to live or by the team you support at sports event; other say that it is a question of whom you would fight for. It has also been argued that nationality is no longer a powerful force in Britain, that it is a matter of circumstance, and that today it is far less significant than local or global identities: relatives, friends and communities are more important to us and so is transnational culture. Nationality is a question of identity and so is crossed by other kinds of identity, such as ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, age and occupation.

Regional and local identities are extremely strong in Britain and the diversity of beliefs, practices, loyalties and accents is immense. National (‘ethnic’) loyalties can be strong among the people in Britain whose ancestors were not English. For many people living in England who call themselves Scottish, Welsh or Irish, this loyalty is little more than a matter of emotional attachment.

Scottishness

 

For people living in Scotland, there are constant reminders of their distinctiveness. First, several important aspects of public life, such as education and the legal and welfare systems, are organized separately, and differently, from the rest of Britain. Scotland even prints its own banknotes. Second, the Scottish way of speaking English is very distinctive. A modern form of the dialect known as Scots is spoken in everyday life by most of the working classes in the lowlands. Third, there are many symbols of Scottishness, which are well-known throughout Britain.

· On 25 January every year, many Scottish people attend ‘Burns suppers’. At these parties, they read from the work of the eighteenth-century poet Robert Burns (regarded as Scotland’s national poet), wear kilts, sing traditional songs, dance traditional dances (called ‘reels’) and eat haggis (made from sheep’s heart, lungs, and liver).

· “In the eighteenth century, the English practically destroyed Highland Scotland. The normalizing of relations between the two countries was accomplished by a novelist, Sir Walter Scott, whose stories and legends intrigued and excited the English. Under his direction, the whole country reinvented itself. Everyone who could get hold of a bit of tartan wore a kilt, ancient ceremonies were invented. In a few months, a wasteland of dangerous beggarly savages became a nation of noble, brave, exotic warriors. Scott did the best public relations job in history.’ - wrote A.A.Gill in the Sunday times on 23 January 1994.



 

Welshness

The people of Wales do not have as many reminders of their Welshness in everyday life. The organization of public life is similar to that of England and there are not so many well-known symbols of Welshness. However, there is one single highly important symbol of Welsh identity – the Welsh language. Everybody in Wales can speak English, but it is not everybody’s first language. For about 20% of the population (that’s more than half a million people), the mother tongue is Welsh. All children in Wales learn it at school, there are many local newspapers in Welsh and a Welsh television channel, and all public notices and signs are written in both languages.

Englishness

For the last 200 years, most people who describe themselves as English have made little distinction in their minds between ‘English’ and ‘British’. For example, at international football or rugby matches when the players stand to attention to hear the anthems of the two teams, the Scottish, Irish and Welsh have their own songs, while the English one is just God Save the Queen – the same as the British national anthem. However, as part of the growing profile of ethnic identity generally, the ‘English’ part, distinct from ‘British’, is becoming clearer. Not so ago, English supporters at those football or rugby matches used to wave the Union Jack flag; now they wave the cross of St. George. And at the Commonwealth Games, where England and the other parts of Britain compete separately, England has even found its own anthem (Land of Hope and Glory).

The English emblem has been the rose since the War of the Roses in the fifteenth century. More recently, as a symbol of both tradition and socialism, the red rose has been adopted as its emblem by the Labour party.

Other ethnic identities

The peoples of the four nations have been in contact for centuries. As a result, there is a limit to their significant differences. With minor variations and exceptions, they look the same, eat the same food, have the same religious heritage (Christianity), learn the same language first (English) and have the same attitudes to the roles of men and women.

The situation for the several million people in Britain whose family roots lie elsewhere in the world is different. For one thing, most of them look different. From the point of view of numbers and length of time in Britain, two major groupings may be identified.

The longest-established of these groups are black Caribbeans. The other major grouping consists of those whose cultural roots lie in and around the Indian subcontinent. In Britain, they are known collective as ‘Asians’. Members of these communities stuck closely together when they first came to Britain and now usually marry among themselves so that they have retained in varying degrees, the languages, their (non-Christian) religions, their music, and their dress and food preferences. In recent decades, some young British Muslims have reacted against their immigrant parents’ attempts to assimilate to British culture. They have made a conscious attempt to adhere more strictly to Islamic practices, some interpretations of which can alienate them from mainstream British values.

 


Date: 2015-01-12; view: 3520


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