Xenophobia

The natives are getting restless. The word is on the street, there are hints in the papers and Facebook is buzzing with it. They’re banning England shirts in pubs! They’re banning England shirts in a World cup year!
Well actually they’re not but it seems a lot of people think they are. This all appears to stem from a Sun story where the police had advised pubs in Croydon not to allow football shirt wearing fans in during the World cup. This is mainly because of the carnage of 2006 when it seems Croydon turned into a football related bloodbath.
This localised story has gone viral and, not helped by the Sun’s headline of ‘England shirts banned!’, seems to have evolved into ‘England shirts banned because they offend foreigners, you can’t do anything anymore, it’s political correctness gone mad!’.
That didn’t take long did it?
The natives have grabbed this with both hands. Last night I was taken home by my ‘racist’ cabby, to be fair he’s probably not but he always seems to get onto the subject and picks and chooses his words very carefully. The last time he picked me up we had a ten minute debate in which he tried to convince me I was English. He seemed completely shocked that I didn’t consider myself as such.
‘But you were born here.’
‘Yeah, but it’s a cultural thing. Being British and being English isn’t inter-changeable. You wouldn’t expect a Welshman to say he was English but he would probably concede he was British.’
I could almost hear the cogs of his brain turning as he tried to digest this. His main gripe was that his national pride was being taken away from him and he felt marginalised in his own country.
‘But you were born here!’
Right.
I’ve never been a flag waver of any description but this has seemed to be a bit of a running theme of late. Part of me hankers for the time when people were happy for me to be foreign and be done with it. Now every one wants to adopt me because a) I’m white and b) my English is impeccable. The Girlf her self struggles with it. She tells me I’m not really Greek.
For these two reasons a lot of people seem to be under the impression I’d be happy to convert. My personal favourite quote is ‘you lot are alright, it’s the Paki’s we hate’. Clearly I’m ment to be charmed and feel excepted by this sentiment but I digress.
Cabby’s main issue seems to be that immigrants get an easier ride than the indigenous population, the laws are all geared to keep them happy and he can go fuck himself. The working Englishman has had his pride taken away from him and he can’t say anything anymore without appearing racist. My personal opinion is that is dependent on what you want to say. If what you want to say is ignorant or racist you will come across as such. Surely in a reasonable debate you won’t if you back your argument up properly.
Last night he brought up the England shirt/flag issue. It would appear the police tried to ban St George’s flags on the seafront but faced with blank refusal they backed down. So apparently, it would seem, flags haven’t been banned but this didn’t stop cabby getting wound up by it. It is just another example of his national identity being taken away, or not as it transpires.
I’m putting a flag up in the shop. It’s my shop and it’s the World cup, I’ve been doing it for years. No ones ever said anything and I suspect no one will because all this talk of banning shirts and flags is bullshit. People enjoy winding themselves up and it’s just another excuse to have a go at foreigners. It’s the ‘if they come over here they should adopt our ways’ mentality.
The irony is that’s exactly what most immigrants have been doing for years and while the general population tears it’s self to pieces over it’s national identity and it’s self imposed thought crimes the rest of us, the immigrants, the foreigners get on with our lives with a sense of bemusement.
People in this country have lost their identity and their pride and this is because all the things that made Britain great, all the wealth and power and prestige came from the rape and pillage and subjugation of three quarters of the planet. Queen Victoria wasn’t a queen she was an Empress.
Britain’s never would be slaves because everyone else fucking was.
So in three generations cabby’s gone from a world ruler, a member of an elite by default, by an accident of birth, to just another bloke. He can’t even call a Paki a Paki anymore because he’ll get into trouble and will look racist when he’s being racist.
Facebook is awash with this under current of xenophobia and groups are cropping up daily.

‘If we can’t wear England shirts, they can’t wear turbans!’

‘It’s our country, if you don't like it fuck off!’

Obviously I’ve corrected all the spelling and grammatical errors (no really, I’m not being funny. It’s true. It seems national pride goes hand in hand with an inability to express yourself correctly in written English).
People are scared of the differences, different cultures and different clothes. These people stand out therefore seem more prevalent than they actually are. This fear of strangeness is very pronounced in certain areas. The BNP has capitalised extensively in these places. Stirring up antagonism and generally making stuff up to fuel existing prejudices. BNP support is either racist or ignorant. It’s one or the other; you’re either racist or stupid.
The BNP is a racist party because all their policies come down to race. They target the poor and ignorant because they’re the ones most likely to live in diverse areas with social problems. The immigrants are taking their benefits. People with decent jobs aren’t going to be effected by an influx of people unable to speak the language. People on the state tit will perceive that they are because there are only so many houses and only so much money to go around. Throw a couple of burka’s into the equation and extremist parties can make hay.
Everyone should be allowed to express pride in their culture but they have to know what they’re proud of. You have to back up the statement with examples otherwise its just jingoistic nonsense. I have no problem with cabby being proud of being English but the subtext is he doesn’t know why he’s proud. He is looking forward to the World cup because it gives people a sense of national pride even though he ISN’T a football person. The poor bastard seems to be clutching at straws.
I’m proud of being Greek Cypriot. The Girlf says I’m arrogant and racist about it and really I’m English because I was born here. I’m not actually proud of being Greek but I am proud of the hard working, upper working class, lower middle class enclave of Cypriot-ness in which I’ve been raised. We’re a small immigrant community now in our third generation. We’re anglicised to an extent but we still retain a slightly old fashioned Cypriot culture which is dying out in Cyprus. As a culture we have evolved away from home so we are different from actual Cypriots and even though we’ve grown up over here we’ve held on to the old culture enough to be different from the indigenous population.
So for me national identity and national pride are abstract terms. My jingoistic pride concerns a population of a few hundred people. So I can be involved as much or as little as I choose with everyone else. I guess I’m lucky like that so if anyone wants to call me a Paki it doesn’t bother me one bit. It’s just one more person to walk past and ignore if they were on fire.