‘White’ (After Richard Dyer)
I wrote this poem last year inspired by the these leaflets going around Bristol which got me thinking about Englishness and different White identities. This piece also somewhat comes inspired by a collection of essays called ‘White’ by Richard Dyer.
This would be an opportune moment to direct you to a great piece of poetry by Northamptonshire’s own Will Reid with his ‘My England’
A few months ago
there were leaflets going round Bristol
saying “it’s okay to white”
but that is not the same as being English
race and culture split like Brexit
I have been told I am English
but what is English culture
cus the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh
have theirs, with a pride in self
the etymology of English / England —
etymology meaning word history — comes from
the Old English pertaining to the Land of Angles
who were Germanic in origin
so, when the far-right boast English nation
history replies with songs of immigration
what does it mean to be English
is it Dickens, The Bronte Sisters and Jane Austen
Conan-Doyle, The Woman and Dr Watson
Shakespeare, Othello and the Moors
because Will’s Eare listened to the England he saw
which was Black, Brown, White and Mixed
so is black-brown-white society really English
at school in those history lessons
the teachers tip-toed round diversity with discretion
trying to be nice, English and polite
but English history really ain’t that white
yet overseas, the be all and end all of Britain is English
but talking to language experts, I mean linguists
you will find out that the English tongue
has histories of latching itself onto the rungs
of Latinate tenses, French, Scandinavian and Viking raids
so this is how our Englishness got to where it is today
but Britain First and the English Defence League
are quite happy to extinguish me to protect English history
and culture which is diverse, so it is really a mystery
to me that the thing they want to protect
is a conglomerate of things they ideologically detest
what is English culture
is there one separate from the Scots and the Welsh
from colonialism, and stories of the Celts
when I think about English culture
I think about names like Warleggan and Penvenen
Cornwall, Poldark and the West Country
sort of a nation within nation with its own history
a region of the country I have never been
I also think of Harry, Kate Middleton and The Queen
is to be English to be white
I don’t know the answer to that
but findings in Cheddar Gauge, Somerset
tell me the first Britons in England were Black
(or more or less close enough to it)
the revelation of Cheddar Man
dated around 8000 years before the Romans arrived
speak to an English culture that derived
from people that looked more like me
and that’s going way into English-British history
so what does it mean to be English
is it to put Churchill in a church of hero-worship
or is it to take part in the
annual Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling Race
is English culture, armistice and VE Day
fetes, street parties and victory parades
slavery and sugar with nice cups of tea
tucking into a curry, or Indian-born kedgeree
is English culture village cricket
and that COVID-19 British blitz spirit
is it billboards covered in ashes
is it taxing the poor, and village fascism
blaming Ireland for the Potato Famine
is it putting Victoria on a pedestal
whilst there is no justice for Hillsborough
30 years on, for the good people of Liverpool
what does it mean to be English
Englishness speaks to a past
of mixedness — from languages to class
wars and injustice and immigration
sexing up violence and colonisation
afternoon tea and fish and chips
a country that would rather deport
its members of the Windrush than lose a battleship
it’s pubs with bad carpet and wallpaper
and austerity floating like water vapour
it’s both Benjamin Zephaniah and Agatha Christie
it’s Ken Loach, Enid Blyton, and shipwrecks by the sea
a complex culture that goes way beyond colonial history
values more three-dimensional than Churchill and Victory
what does it mean to be English
it’s a country moulded by immigration
in the sense immigrants built this nation
you can’t talk about England without Scotland, Ireland and Wales
you know like highland culture, Jacobite, Culloden and tales
of the Cornish, Welsh bardic traditions of Awen
poetry pop-ups in Northants, Beds, Peterborough (The Fens)
Merlin, the Druids, Romans, and stone circles
a history rich with violence and journals of pain
stories of families, the ones we know and those without name
England is at war within
it always has been
looking at itself through others’ eyes
Engl(ish) twoness, two souls:
the English and the British
two Jedi and two Sith
two thoughts, two war paths
whose raw resilience stops it being torn asunder
what is it to be English
what is it to be English
