Where are they?
0 comment Tuesday, July 1, 2014 |
Regarding the royal wedding, from the Daily Mail (UK):
'Audrey Jones our producer was looking for the black people in the wedding and we found our Rosa Parks moment, because we were like 'where are the black people'?' she said.
'It was like where's Waldo, where are the black people?' she added.
'We found one little black child in the choir but where's the black people at this wedding?' she continued.''
Lately I've taken to saying indignantly, when viewing any kind of image of a public gathering with 'diversity' conspicuously absent ''But--but where's the diversity?'' It's laughable and yet tragic that this is the main concern of so many people today.
I don't know who 'Sherri Shepherd' is, and I suspect I'm better off not knowing. I have seen snippets in the past from that show, The View, with its panel of cackling harridans. But they are diverse, so I guess that's the important thing.
I've mentioned here before of how, when I was looking at old photos on Shorpy.com, a picture of a grade school class from the Old America was posted, and the first comment was ''Where are the African-Americans and Hispanics?' The poor soul who asked that question so earnestly was evidently ignorant of the fact that back when that picture was taken, Hispanics were hardly omnipresent, even in California or Texas then. Imagine.
And blacks, being a mere 10 or 11 percent of the total population, could not be everywhere either. So many schools, sadly, were diversity-starved. But we can thank our lucky stars, they are working to correct that now, in Britain as well as in this country.
As of now, Britain has a black population apparently in the single digits still, though looking at scenes of London, that's hard to believe. And if you believe the BBC, there once were blacks and 'Saracen Turks' roaming Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest, and then there was the black Guinevere. I wonder what happened? But not to worry; it's all going to be corrected as quickly as possible.
I did not see the Royal Wedding which has been the center of so much hype. I have seen snippets and read about aspects of it on the Internet. I hear that the wedding vows were somewhat altered to politically correct them in accordance with 21st century sensibilities, and that's not surprising. I saw a shot of Elton John and his man/wife there, prominently positioned.
I note, as always, that many ''conservatives'' on the Internet forums are engaging in their usual anti-royal, anti-monarchy diatribes, which I find misguided. To the FReepers: our revolution was not fought to overthrow monarchy as an institution; I think you have it confused with the French Revolution. And our aim was not to shake off alien rule; ''the British'' were our flesh and blood, and the Colonists regarded them as such. The Colonists claimed their own English origins.
So I don't share the loathing for royalty or for social classes that seems to animate many 'conservatives'. Our Founding Fathers did not regard 'democracy' as a desirable form of government, and spoke of it with disdain. They warned of the dangers of democracy, which can easily become mob rule, and can lead to rule by demagogues and tyrants.
Monarchy is as good as the people who are at the top, or as bad. Just as with our system.
Having said that, I have no particular admiration for the Windsors; it seems that they are part of the corrupt world system that is behind the slow and agonizing death of the West. The Queen, sadly, recites the multicultural propaganda these days, and it seems as if the royals care nothing that the English people, those who are the core of what is called Britain, are now second-class citizens in their own country. The English alone have no flag, no parliament of their own. The St. George's flag is now considered 'divisive' if not racist.
Still, despite all that, I can't help but regard the historical England, traditional England, with great fondness. I've felt that way since childhood, and just as with my loyalty to the South and to the best in America, it's the people to whom my fondness and loyalty belong, not a governmental system or the changing faces who 'rule' the country, or even a flag, historic though a flag may be. I somehow find the pageantry and the ceremony and the pomp to be stirring. It seems to awaken something in many people who have ties to that people and that land. It draws us to the past, and to our kin, living and dead, and to come.
We seem to have less and less of that in America as time goes by; not many of us seem to care about the past, and few even know our history. We have few symbols, except for our flag, which is trivialized in many ways.
As our country becomes ever more fractured and factionalized, made unrecognizable by the whirlwind of demographic change, there is little to hold us together, little common heritage and national memory. The monarchy, the institution and all that it represents, represents continuity, and history, extending back in the case of Britain for many centuries.
It's sad that the royals are now becoming little more than characters in soap operas, or tacky celebrities. I read that Prince William says he enjoys 'rap and hip-hop.' That in itself speaks volumes.
Despite all this, I know there is still a core there of the old England or the old Britain if you insist. Personally I think the Welsh and Scots should have full independence, and England be free to go it alone, all of them freed from the EU.
In the meantime, I am glad there is still a vestige of the England that was, even if it's a rather threadbare one. And in parting, I'll ask Sherri Shepherd, whoever she is, ''where are the English?'' That's the pertinent question.

Labels: , , ,