TRAIT 6: Varied VS Single Ethnicity

What is your ethnicity? This question is something that I had never really thought about until I came to America. In the UK, when people are asked where they are from, what nationality they are or what Ethnicity they are – the answer would be simple and direct. They are British. However, American’s answer these questions very differently. Granted, they will always say that they are American (as we have found out in TRAIT 2, they are very openly proud of their American blood). However, I found that they will also add on to their answer, describing every part of their heritage or ethnicity – sometimes going back hundreds and hundreds of years. I will be considering in this entry why American’s do this, but I would also like to try to find out why we don’t. What causes us to be secure with one nationality – or on the other side – what causes them to need to expand?

Factors

For me, being a British person, there are two factors that determine your nationality. The first is where you were born and the second is where you live or have lived for a significant amount of time – usually during your childhood years.

As far as I knew, and this information comes from everyone that I have spoken to about this in the UK, if you are born in the UK and grow up there, you are British. There are many people currently living in the UK who do not have ‘British Ethnicity’ – which is because their parents or grandparents might have come to live in Britain from another country. So, in this case, the individual in question would have a British accent, but his parents may not – and he/she may even speak a different language at home. However, as long as they were born in the UK (or in some cases, came to the UK at a young age and grew up there), they would class themselves as British if they were asked the million pound question.

Look At Me!

Let’s turn the spotlight on me for a minute, as an example in our quest for understanding:  

• I was born in the UK, but I spent a few of my crucial growing years living in other countries.
• I am now living in America.
• My mum and dad were both born in the UK, so were my Grandparents and as far as I know – their grandparents before them.
• My accent is British.
• My mum live in Britain, but my dad lives in Dubai and is married to a Peruvian.

So, how do I answer the big question? Drum roll…..

I am British. Of course I am. There will never be any doubt about that. To me, it doesn’t matter how long I have lived in another country, the UK will always be where I grew up and so it will always be my Ethnicity.

Where Am I From? Who Nose!

Something that I have talked about with my friends once or twice is the shape of British noses. Two civilizations that broke into Britain many, many years ago, were the Romans and the Vikings. For those of you who didn’t have this part of history shoved down your throat growing up - the Romans came from Italy and the Vikings came from Scandinavia. Both civilizations were known for having obvious facial features – most notably were their noses.

Viking noses are said to be flat and stay close to the face as they descend. They are said to also be either straight or have a slight bend to them. If you have one of these noses and live in Britain, there is said to be a good chance that your ancestor belonged to the Viking settlement that came to Britain in around 800 AD. However, looking at the helmets that the Vikings used to wear, with a flat piece of metal covering the nose, I don’t know how much of that description is true, and how much of it is based on the helmet design. I am also wondering if the tight helmet might squash the nose towards the face, resulting in the Viking nose we think we know – in which case the nose wouldn’t be genetic. Of course, I can never really know the answer to this so I am just speculating!

The Romans had Aquiline noses, which extend straight outward, away from the face and are predominantly beak shaped. If you have one of these and live in Britain, there is a good chance that one of your ancestors was one of the many Roman soldiers, brought over by the Roman invasion in 55 BC. This is the kind of nose that I have, as does my sister – we both inherited the Macklin nose from my Dad and my Granddad. So, in light of that, let’s talk nicely about the Romans, shall we? A lot of what we know today in Britain is from the Romans – for example, our language was shaped by them (they brought Latin to us, which is still learned in some very posh schools!) We also have many Roman ruins that grace the likes of Chester and other beautiful Roman towns. OK, that should do it!

My Eyes Are From Italy, My Skin Is From France

I have heard Americans state that they are part this and part that – most of the time I can’t understand how they can have a part of ten different countries inside of them and still be a normal person.

Each American has ancestors from all over the world in a very unique way – there are no Americans (who are not descended from Native Americans) who have a fully American lineage. Each person’s ancestors came from somewhere else. Even so, I found this American trait one of the most baffling. I think that it’s because I found so much pride and patriotism in the typical American character that I didn’t think they would ever admit to being from somewhere else or belonging to another nationality. But as I have progressed with this blog, I have also noticed that their heritage and history means just as much (as explained in TRAIT 4).

I am starting to understand that there are many levels to the typical American personality. To be an American, or more precisely to be patriotic, you have to understand that you must be proud of your land and the nation, but you must also be proud of its history and heritage. This means that in turn, you are proud of the other nationalities that came together inside it during its creation. So, you openly show your personal ethnicity because it is a part of what made you who you are, and so, it is a part of what made America who she is.

Why Not Us?

I love history – so when I participate in a conversation with an American who has assigned his/her personality and appearance traits to the several nations that make up his/her heritage – it greatly intrigues me. “I have my strict organisational skills because I am part German,” or, “My hair is light blonde because I am part Swedish”.  It does make me wonder though – why don’t we do that?

I know that Britain isn’t like America in the sense that it is such an old country – the same sense of diversely ethnic citizens just doesn’t exist. However, in the past we have been taken over countless times by many different nations – many of the same ones, as it happens, which settled in America. I suppose the difference is that for the nations that took over Britain, the original British were integrated with the new combined nationality. In

most cases, a new mixed nationality developed and carried on the British ethnicity – the process of which was far from peaceful and went back and forth and changed regularly. For the nations that settled in America, it was their choice and they settled rather than took over (the native American population were taken over or moved, but the same sense of integration between the two populations that happened in historical Britain, did not take place).

The ancestry that makes up the modern American – the ones that are referred to when the ethnicity question arises – lived many generations ago and for some people, can be carried back hundreds of years. However, in Britain, most of the outside nationality influences of our ancestors were injected far further back than that. If we were to trace our ancestors back the same distance as the American’s do when they find what country their first American ancestor came from (looking at the same timeframe),  we would probably find that they came from Britain. We may have been invaded many times, and we may have other nationalities in our blood somewhere, but it is so unimaginably long ago that it would be nearly impossible to trace.

So, then, maybe there is no need to relay the list of nationalities within us, because most of us couldn’t do it, even if we tried. So, then, true to British form, everyone else who has close ancestry from other nationalities but were born in the UK also wouldn’t see the need to relay them – mainly because nobody else does. The only time that I have seen anyone from the UK answer the ethnicity question with more than the simple ‘British’ if they were born there, was when they have foreign features such as darker skin, etc. In this case, they might mention where their parents or grandparents were from. Having said that, I don’t think those conversations ever mentioned the ‘part’ word. Saying that you are “part [insert a nationality]” is very much more commitment to that nationality than it seems to be in the US. I have found that in the UK, if you don’t know much about the country, or your parents/grandparents that came from there don’t teach you the ways or customs, then you generally don’t feel that you have the right to state that you are a part of that nationality. You would say that you are British, possibly followed by your parents or grandparents nationality – but you wouldn’t say that you yourself were of that nationality, unless you feel more or equally as connected to it as you do to Britain. This is generalising of people that were born in the UK and I am sure that there are exceptions, but you get the idea.

Next Time…

Thank you, once again, for reading my rambles. I wish I could know a bit more about my own ethnicity. All I know is that on my Dad’s side, my family were chimney sweeps from Peterborough – but that only goes back to my great, great grandfather. I don’t know much at all about my mum’s side, or what the family from my Dad’s side got up to before great, great Grandpa! Maybe I will never know, but I envy the American’s in that way – they always seem to know where their family came from. Next time, I will be discussing TV and Advertising – Free Speech Vs Legally Unbiased.

See you then!

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history