I had an interesting chat with Mama Dumpling the other evening. I was telling her about my new England flag, pictured above, and she said that the Cross of St George always made her feel extremely uncomfortable, as she associated it with the National Front and the British National Party. To be honest, I hadn't thought about it before. Yes, in my youth, they pretty much exclusively used the flag, but since the devolution of Scotland and Wales, England has had more of an independent identity and football fans have adopted the flag and removed it of its nationalist connotations.
However, am I being naive? After all, I grew up in what the National Front charmingly called the Last White City in England. There were three -- count 'em -- non-white pupils at my 1200-strong school. And while Norwich was regularly voted the politest city in England, a Guardian journalist wrote a scathing piece about how unwelcoming people were to those of color. What he failed to appreciate, of course, was that Norfolk people are generally unwelcoming of those whose grandparents weren't born in that village -- as I'm sure Mondale will attest! But racist? I'm not convinced.
Thoughts?
3 comments:
Hi Dumpling, Yes, I've got thoughs on this since flags are a sensitive issue to me. Please do keep showing your England flag and being proud of it, no matter how others have taken advantage of it in the past. To stop using it would be like conceding to them that they represent you all (which is what they are after, as all totalitarian organisations and regimes claim - 'we speak on behalf of all...' - rubbish!!) I am Spanish and by what I've read, you may know a bit of what I'm talking about. You can't show off the Spanish flag in certain regions of Spain without being called something nicer than "facha" and beauties like that. On the other hand, the regional/so-called-national flags are being taken advantage of by others who truly are totalitarian and racist. As you said, scots have theirs, you've got yours. What did poor St George know about national fronts and stuff if he was just busy killing dragons? By the way, the Cross of Saint George is a national symbol shared by other European regions (if you've been to Barcelona you may have heard of Sant Jordi...) just go for it. Greetings from the Grand Duchy of Lux.
Bienvenido, pulgarcita! You'll be pleased to hear that my flag is still flying proudly from my balcony and will do so for some time yet!
First, let me introduce myself: I found you via the links of my old school chum Mondale's blog. Any mawther who calls herself a dumplin' has gottuh be orlright. I've been enjoying your writing and sharing your football pain.
I think the cross of St George is alright as long as it doesn't get overwhelmed by that Daily Mail undercurrent of "Lets celebrate St George's Day and withdraw from the EU" malarkey. As Billy Bragg says, St George was born in Lebanon and the three lions are hardly native fauna.
I've often wondered about "Norfolk nationalism": my maternal family is from Norfolk (the Highs of Cley and the Bunnetts of Sheringham) I spent most of my youth in Norwich, my granddad was a Norfolk plod, I've followed City since I was 8, and I think of it as home. But my dad is a Londoner (although his grandmother was from Thetford and left Norfolk to go into service in the smoke in the twenties) and as he was in the RAF I spent a fair bit of time away too. I also had the grave misfortune of being born in Ipswich when he was stationed in Suffolk. I wonder about my relatives who stayed (fewer and fewer with each generation in my lifetime) versus those of us who left- there is some value in consistent occupation of the land but do we overvalue folks who stand still? I emigrated to Maine in the USA 11 years ago and its a lot like Norfolk in that respect: if you can't claim Maine great-grand parents you are from "away". All well and good, but to my mind all this shows is that one had ancestors who lacked a degree of curiosity about the world.
I suppose the key is working out how to be small town yet broad minded.
Alright, I'll shut up now. Nothing worse than having a complete stanger waxing philosophical on one's blog. I'm off to enjoy the sunshine, i's fair enough fer taterin' here today.
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