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Musing: race - re: the Welsh
Jul. 28th, 2009 11:47 amThe situation of the Welsh has come up several times on my journal. Without saying anything about previous arguments, etc, here is an article that I think you should read. Especially if you're English. Especially if you think the Welsh are not discriminated against.
Mocking the Welsh is the Last Permitted Bigotry.
"One class of person, though, one race, one nationality, is evidently exempt from this taboo. In England it is open-season still for Welsh-baiting. The Welsh joke flour- ishes. The Welsh language is still an object of derision. Scoundrels still ‘welsh’ upon their creditors, and to this day Lord Kinnock is calumnied as the old Welsh windbag. Who has not heard the English tourist complaining that the moment he and his family walked into a Welsh pub, ‘they all started jabbering in Welsh’?"
"The antipathy against Wales, though, is something different, because it is tinged always with contempt, and soured by incompletion. Isn’t Wales part of Britain — part of England, really? What’s this nonsense about the revival of a language — don’t they all speak English anyway, and why can’t they spell Owen Glendower like Shakespeare did? What would they be without us? What do they contribute? And listen, this will make you laugh — did you hear the one about the Welshman and the crocodile...?""
Note: Not claiming this article is objective. But it's a good viewpoint onto how the Welsh are treated. I've talked about that enough that I can't be bothered to repeat it. Suffice it to say that I grew up in England constantly being bullied for being Welsh, which was acceptable because "it was just a joke" and "it's only Wales".
Mocking the Welsh is the Last Permitted Bigotry.
"One class of person, though, one race, one nationality, is evidently exempt from this taboo. In England it is open-season still for Welsh-baiting. The Welsh joke flour- ishes. The Welsh language is still an object of derision. Scoundrels still ‘welsh’ upon their creditors, and to this day Lord Kinnock is calumnied as the old Welsh windbag. Who has not heard the English tourist complaining that the moment he and his family walked into a Welsh pub, ‘they all started jabbering in Welsh’?"
"The antipathy against Wales, though, is something different, because it is tinged always with contempt, and soured by incompletion. Isn’t Wales part of Britain — part of England, really? What’s this nonsense about the revival of a language — don’t they all speak English anyway, and why can’t they spell Owen Glendower like Shakespeare did? What would they be without us? What do they contribute? And listen, this will make you laugh — did you hear the one about the Welshman and the crocodile...?""
Note: Not claiming this article is objective. But it's a good viewpoint onto how the Welsh are treated. I've talked about that enough that I can't be bothered to repeat it. Suffice it to say that I grew up in England constantly being bullied for being Welsh, which was acceptable because "it was just a joke" and "it's only Wales".
