Friday 30 December 2011

I love British Multiculturalism.

I half expected that coming home to the UK after Singapore would spell the end of the Journey. Learn. Speak. blog, simply because the first action "Journey" no longer happens. When British people go out into the world we are so overly receptive to the cultural differences it has to offer, but then when we return home and are hit with rhetoric of assimilation and homogenisation and counter-rhetoric claiming Britain has no culture to assimilate to.

I won't be as rude as to say that Britain has no culture, there are things the British did, or ate, that are largely unique to themselves. The fact that these British traits/dishes aren't seen as exotic, does not rule out the fact that they are cultural. One thing I love about modern British culture, however, is the fact that multiculturalism is the main thread. I love that as a black woman of African descent I can look out of the kitchen window of the flat I share with a Sri Lankan and two white English girls, and watch a procession of Middle Eastern/South Asian Muslims commemorating a 6th century war. When our Prime Minister slates things like this by saying multiculturalism isn't working, I sigh, because for me, with all our faults Britain is a beacon of multiculturalism, and if we were more tolerant rather than fearful of things that have been misrepresented to us, we would find such beauty in the event I watched earlier this month.

I thought I would share it with you:


The one thing I took from this experience, you don't need to journey 7000 miles to experience culture and speak about it, but it's fun if you do.

2 comments:

  1. So true. Just like the R3 lounge. People from almost everywhere in the world.

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  2. exactly, sometimes we'll find ourselves in places like that, and it's just beautiful.

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