Proper cockney is as euphonious as any other form of English. It was a pleasure to listen to. It's lost now to Estuary English spoken by the likes of Tony Bliar who couldn't even manage a proper glottal stop. Harwevver he was a little better than Dick Van Dyke.
I got asked my ethnicity yesterday when getting checked in for my serving AZ jab. It really stumped me for awhile. I mean I don't think like skin colour and nationality is that relevant to me. So I had to actually think about it. It's strange that because it's pretty obvious I'm white and my accent is a blend of a few Northern varieties? It's kind of a safe assumption to mark me as white British. However I had to think of the classifications and which one I was.
Looking back I'm kind of confused about being stumped about being white British? I do take it as a positive that I must find those classifications so irrelevant I don't think about them. My dad would possibly be pleased by that. He brought me up, and my mum, to be anti racism. Once as a very young child I heard someone at primary school describe someone on the TV show teacher put on as being a p*k*. I saw a black man on TV at home, pointed and said P*k*. I kind of expected a well done because it was a new word i had learnt. I got a sandal thrown at me and it bounced off to hit the TV. My dad told me in no uncertain terms such words were bad. I had also used it incorrectly i later learnt because a black man isn't a P*k*.
I have never used a derogatory name or word for any BAME person since. Also people get to know that I don't like such names and insults used in my presence. Even my old granddad using the term darky had me tense up and leave the conversation. Can't tell him off, he was the patriarch you didn't cross.
BTW sorry about using that name but it was a key part of the story.
My answer depends on my mood and why I'm answering. Do I want to be counted as an ethnic minority or white British. It peeves me that there are about 6 options for black and one for white. Also Caribbean is listed as an ethnic origin. The Caribbean has a mixture of ethnicities, much the same as the UK. I could be Indo-European, Celtic, or whatever. I haven't a clue. I used to explain it to my Confused form filling students thus: Your nationality is what's on your passport . Your ethnicity is in your genes.
When my daughter was about 2 and learning her colours, we were looking out the window and she said: There's a brown lady. I mentioned it to a black colleague who was insistant that I should have corrected the error and told her that the lady was black. I thought she might have been a little young for me to explain ethnicity. The woman was brown but I'm certain my 2year-old wouldn't have described a person that an adult could call white as white because they're not white any more than a black person is black.
Cornish language officially died out in the early 1900s I believe when an old lady who was the last native born Cornish speaker. They did however know enough of the language and similar types of Celtic languages to bring the language back.
Dolly Pentreath died in the 1770s. Cornish is closely related to Breton and Welsh, so it could be 'remembered' by using those languages and the Cornish words that still exist in place names and the like.
I don't think that having an interest in the historic derivation of language and culture is necessarily the same as nationalism. I'm as interested in the story of the place that I live now as that of the place I was born. I feel no 'pride' in or affinity for the success of people that I've never met, even if they were born in the same town as me. That doesn't mean I'm not interested in their stories, just that I don't claim ownership of them.
Diversity is strength, monocultures are always fragile.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
NorthernJoe's comment about ethnicity reminded me of a situation some years ago. We were stopped for a traffic survey and the question was "Is this journey for business or pleasure?" and I said 'No.' That thoroughly confused the questionner and they insisted it must be one or the other. I said we were on our way to the hospital to visit my wife's father who was critically ill, so neither choice was correct.
Point is that many things in life are not either/or answers. I was going to say not black or white but that's probably not acceptable any more.
That Black Widow ad. is really pssssing me off. I eventually found a way to access home without clicking on the advert. It's intrusive, offensive and totally irrelevant to me. Is there yet another glitch or is it another advertising wheeze?
Posts
Education and enlightenment are what's needed. Racism, bigotry, sexism and religious intolerance are learned behaviours, not innate.
Looking back I'm kind of confused about being stumped about being white British? I do take it as a positive that I must find those classifications so irrelevant I don't think about them. My dad would possibly be pleased by that. He brought me up, and my mum, to be anti racism. Once as a very young child I heard someone at primary school describe someone on the TV show teacher put on as being a p*k*. I saw a black man on TV at home, pointed and said P*k*. I kind of expected a well done because it was a new word i had learnt. I got a sandal thrown at me and it bounced off to hit the TV. My dad told me in no uncertain terms such words were bad. I had also used it incorrectly i later learnt because a black man isn't a P*k*.
I have never used a derogatory name or word for any BAME person since. Also people get to know that I don't like such names and insults used in my presence. Even my old granddad using the term darky had me tense up and leave the conversation. Can't tell him off, he was the patriarch you didn't cross.
BTW sorry about using that name but it was a key part of the story.
It peeves me that there are about 6 options for black and one for white.
Also Caribbean is listed as an ethnic origin. The Caribbean has a mixture of ethnicities, much the same as the UK. I could be Indo-European, Celtic, or whatever. I haven't a clue.
I used to explain it to my Confused form filling students thus:
Your nationality is what's on your passport .
Your ethnicity is in your genes.
I mentioned it to a black colleague who was insistant that I should have corrected the error and told her that the lady was black. I thought she might have been a little young for me to explain ethnicity.
The woman was brown but I'm certain my 2year-old wouldn't have described a person that an adult could call white as white because they're not white any more than a black person is black.
I don't think that having an interest in the historic derivation of language and culture is necessarily the same as nationalism. I'm as interested in the story of the place that I live now as that of the place I was born. I feel no 'pride' in or affinity for the success of people that I've never met, even if they were born in the same town as me. That doesn't mean I'm not interested in their stories, just that I don't claim ownership of them.
Diversity is strength, monocultures are always fragile.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”