Page 165 - White Lives The Interplay of 'Race', Class, and Gender in Everyday Life

158 How English am I?
Despite this highly ambivalent view of her nationality, it was to Englishness
that she looked, unsuccessfully, for a cultural identity. In very similar terms
to Helen, Rosalind felt that Englishness was disappearing under the colour-
ful cultural additions coming both from Europe and from other racial groups
with different historical trajectories.

Rosalind: It’s interesting because I think a lot of people don’t think of
themselves as English, do they? [. . .] It’s interesting, because in
a sense school, you know, they learn about lots of different cul-
tures. In a sense, it almost feels we haven’t got one. ’Cos they’re
doing the black history month this year . . . at school ...and
that’s kind of ...I was talking to the parent who’s running it
and she said it’s been kind of really important to her to find
out about role models of . . . that come from black history, that
have really kind of achieved lots of things ’cos she always felt at
school she got no . . . she had nothing to feel proud of. So, in a
sense there’s . . . you know, the English bit is always a bit lack-
ing. And whether that’s . . . because lots of Welsh and Scottish
friends I have are quite passionate about their origins.
BB: But is there a sense that because you’re able to . . . it’s able to be
ignored because it’s kind of there anyway.
Rosalind: Yes, I’m sure, and it’s the thing that’s done anyway, isn’t it? The
kind of English is still the kind of majority way, so I suppose it’s
something we never have to think about. But I’m not sure what
kind of amount of culture we do pass on. ’Cos I don’t feel any
great tradition to pass on to Anna and James really. I’ve never
really thought about it, but I’m not sure you’d know how much
to talk about where you come from, and who you are, because I
think living in London, it is sort of quite a European . . . certain-
ly living here, there’s a lot of . . . we’ve got quite a lot of friends
who live in mainland Europe now. And in a lot of circumstances,
it’s always the English who haven’t got a kind of interesting cul-
tural thing to do . . .
(Interview 20)

For Rosalind, English was the ‘majority way’ and was white and could
be contrasted with black or other groups who had ‘interesting’ things to do
with their culture and history. Black history month must, by definition, have
been about something other than Englishness. In contrast to ‘different cul-
tures’, Englishness emerged as a boring culture or identity so that ‘it almost
feels we haven’t got one’. Echoing Heather quoted above, who hoped that
Scottish, Irish and Welsh culture would give a boost to the culturally staid
England, Rosalind also seemed regretful (resentful?) that England was made
to appear culturally empty. Public sites such as her children’s schools are the
location for the construction of culture and identities. Rosalind felt that little