ACH transactions

[Liam Proven]

2009/7/26 Michael <mmorse757 at gmail.com>:
> On a some what related topic of how people view themselves and others,
> what do Europeans call dark skinned people?

I hesitate to make any kind of a general claim for anyone else, but at
least for me & most of my peers, "black people". It seems simplest: "a
black person", "a white person".

The thing that saddens and annoys me in England - the bit of Britain
where I was born and now once again live - is the persistent
allegedly-jocular abuse given to the Welsh, the natives of Wales, the
next country along to the West in Britain.

The Welsh are the true "native British" - most of the "native" peoples
of England are descended from Saxon, Viking and Norman French invaders
and speak a language derived from these invaders' tongues. Albeit, one
to two thousand years ago. I am myself, being a mixture of English,
Irish and Scots.

That's not a problem in and of itself; what I find deeply and
profoundly tasteless is the regular abuse the Welsh get. They are
derided as a race of rural idiots with an impossible language, fit
only for fishing, farming or coal mining, who supposedly enjoy sex
with sheep.

Their language is a close descendant of that which all of England once
spoke, displaced by many successive waves of invasion and
colonisation. It's beautiful and lyrical with a rich history of poetry
and song. The country is wild, rugged and lovely. They have held on to
their language and culture for millennia in a way that the English
have not, simply adopting the speech of their current masters: Latin
then Norse then French.

But still, an independent country with a proud people get mocked
regularly and this is seen as perfectly acceptable. It makes me sick.
All racism and race-hatred is bad; there is no excuse for it because
the targets are near-neighbours and look like us.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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