I was in the shower today, singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, which despite Mr. Gardner's horrifying game of Call of Cthulu all those years ago has retained its peaceful vibes, and I had a sudden realization. I realized something that I missed in England, something that England has a serious dearth of:
Black People.
And this must be rectified post-haste! And not only black people, but black culture as well - I missed flipping through PBS and hearing stuff about Black History Month, or encountering Lift Every Voice and Sing as a hymn in Church - in fact, I don't think the idea of a 'spiritual' means much over here.
Now, I write this as a complete honkey, I just wanted to make that clear. More so, a complete honkey, who was raised in Bucks County, a county so filled with honkeys that if you squeezed it, it'd make a noise. And even more so, a honkey who goes to Kenyon College, which has a similar problem.
BUT, there are still, like, black people that you encounter, both at Kenyon and in Bucks County, even if it's not in the largest numbers. Here, there are black people, yes, but it's not nearly as significant. England never had the race riots or civil liberties pushes to the extremes that America did, at least to my knowledge (perhaps for the better, maybe they solved the problem earlier so it didn't escalate to that point...). Talking about racism or race issues over here has a completely different context than in America. The idea of a British person talking about The Color Purple or To Kill a Mockingbird or Ragtime would be similar to how I'd imagine a British person talking about The Wizard of Oz would be: out of place, unable to grasp the piece in its entirety. Of course, if that were actually true, that means I could never talk about Shakespeare in his entirety (can anyone?), so perhaps this is just a bias of mine. Still...
So maybe, and this is very ethnocentric of me, but maybe what I miss is, specifically, African-Americans. Maybe I miss that shared and resolved cultural heritage, or - this makes me sound like bad person, I think - maybe what I miss is, even more specifically, the idea of African-Americans: the cultural trappings, the spirituals, jazz, the being able to laugh at myself by calling myself a honkey cause I'm a skinny white boy from the suburbs. I miss not being able to claim I can't play basket ball because of my race and have people understand what I'm saying. I'm not sure if I called myself a honkey over here that anyone would know what I was talking about. This means I should test that out...
So I just wanted everyone in America to know that I'm pouring one out for my homies over here in the G.B. (and, if you can, read that in as white a voice as possible. Come on, shouldn't be hard for my regular readers...)
Does this make me racist? I hope not.
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Richard II:
This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear’d by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,—
For Christian service and true chivalry,—
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry
Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son:
This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas’d out,—I die pronouncing it,—
Like to a tenement, or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.Sean Bye:
"British people will always make fun of your accent, but deep down they'll be jealous because you sound like a movie star."
T.S. Eliot:
"A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England."Ken Worrall:
"The only difference between the English and Americans are their perceptions of each other."
5 comments:
I don't think "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" can ever be seen as anything but menacing to me after that horrifying experience in Call of Cthulu. I applaud your resilience, sir!
We've got plenty of black people here in Boston, should you ever come visit. All sorts: homeless ones, rich ones, religious ones, punk ones. It's like "One Fish, Two Fish" but with black people. ;o)
Now who sounds like the racist, hm? I believe that's my title, boy!
But I can see how a homogenous culture like GB's could make one a little homesick for some good 'ole American melting pot.
I was actually really surprised to hear you say that there are no black people in Britain, cos that hasn't been my experience at all. So I went to wikipedia to find out the statistics, and I think the discrepancy is basically because you're outside of the big cities. According to "Demographics of the United Kingdom", 2% or so of the UK identifies as Black British - but in London the number is 11%. BTW, they've had race riots in the UK, too, the worst being the Brixton riot of 1981.
Also, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is actually sung very frequently at rugby matches, for reasons that are not 100% clear to me.
From my (limited) understanding, it seems to me that Britain, as well as the rest of Europe, is in an odd position in that they haven't been dealing with race issues for the several hundred years that the U.S. has. It seems to me that the U.S., at least, KNOWS it's messed up with respect to its race relations, 'cause it's always been that way. Europe, on the other hand, has maintained relative homogeneity within country borders (and nothing says nationalism quite like Europe either), but the collapse of colonial empires and increased globalization means more folks have been coming into European countries from Africa, the Middle East, Asia in the past 50 years than ever before. So you've got all these countries that consider themselves forward-thinking and (by American standards) do have much in the way of liberal policy... but they've never really dealt with true issues of racial difference, so they're still rather stuck in the infant stages of that AND "melting pot" (jingoism as it may be) has never been a part of their self-conception as countries.
And, incidentally, I don't think it's racist to miss a specific part of your culture at home. As Erin astutely pointed out, if you want racism, just look to her.
Thank you Erin. Your new association of "Swing Low" is basically my life's work.
Well, not that specifically. But, in general...you know what I mean.
Anyway.
Note to self:
Luke Beatie, MFA Shakespeare director, was talking about how some of his theatre practitioner students were doing a show in black face today, as a political statement, but apparently black face shows didn't end around here until the 1970s. So it wasn't as political as they wanted it. It was an accepted convention, according to these American guys Luke was talking to.
Interresant.
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