them, you

Chatting with a white middle class English guy who uses the term 'ethnically english', which I think I know what he means - white english with long roots in england as opposed to africa or india or china. But it is a particularly funny one because England is a nation of migrants and occupying forces who stayed and left their genetic and cultural mark - Vikings, Normans (French), Romans. To me it makes more sense to talk of 'ethnically scottish' or other celtic regions, because they are indigenous, as in, the first and continuous line of human inhabitants - but anyway...

We were talking about Englishness. It always surprises me how resistant english people are to national pride, consciously, when they are happy to maintain an (un)conscious cultural superiority viz the rest of the world. I said that they have to reclaim their image from the far right political groups. They must be proud of being English in a way that is meaningful and true and not based on historical arrogances or self-loathing contemporary distortions.
But I think you guys feel too guilty for that.

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