Black Brit1 Across the Atlantic

by Gary Younge
The Guardian Weekly

5 Before I came to America from England three months ago, I asked an American journalist in
London what kind of reactions to expect. "Well, when they hear an English accent Americans
usually add about 20 points to your IQ. But when they see a black face they usually don't," he said.
"You'll be different."

After three months here I am left wondering whether "different" quite covers the mixture of
10 bemusement2, amazement3 and curiosity I have met since I arrived. Often people just think I am
showing off4. This is especially the case with African Americans. All I have to do is open my mouth
and they get ready to ask, "Who are you trying to impress with that accent?"

They don't actually say anything. Their thoughts are revealed5 in the downward line of eyebrows
and the curl of the lip. Once I say I'm English, the eyebrows go back up and the lips uncurl6. Now
15 they are in shock. A woman in the bank called her colleagues over to hear my accent. "Listen to
this, listen to this," she said. "Go, say something," she demanded, as though I was a circus monkey.

Most people here who have not traveled much abroad seem astounded7 to learn that black
people exist outside of America and Africa at all. Their image of England is what they see on
television and what they read in the papers. Whether that is the image that England wants to sell
20 or the one that America wants to buy is not quite clear — my guess is that it's a mixture of both —
but either way it doesn't leave much room for black people.

Once I have told someone I am English they are generally prepared to take me at my word, which
is more than can be said about people I meet back home. A typical conversation goes something
like this:

25 "Where are you from?"

"London."
"Well, where were you born?"
"London."
"Well, before then?"
30 "There was no before then!"

1
Brit = Briton: brite
2
Bemusement:forvirring
3
Amazement: forbløffelse
4
show off: vise sig, prale
5
Reveal: afsløre
6
Uncurl: rette sig ud
7
Astounded: overrasket

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 5 "Well, where are your parents from?"
"Barbados."
"Oh, so you're from Barbados."
"No, I'm from London."

Although there have been blacks in Britain for centuries, they only came here in sizable numbers
10 after the Second World War. During the 1950s and 1960s they came from Africa and the
Caribbean — alongside those from the Indian subcontinent8 — to do the sorts of jobs that the
indigenous9 white population wasn't eager to do.

My parents came to England from Barbados in the early '60s and I was born there. Like many
immigrants they only planned to stay for a few years, work hard, earn some money and then
15 return home.

But like many immigrants they ended up staying, starting a family and building a life there. Blacks
now make up about 3 per cent of the British population.

Britain's sense of national identity is still trying to catch up. But in the meantime questions like
"Where are you from?" are often interpreted10 to mean, "Please tell me you are not from here."
20 Which is why meeting so many Americans with names like Gugliotta, Biskupic and Shapiro is so
refreshing. Almost everybody here is originally from somewhere else. Even the white people. And
most people lay claim to11 another identity — Italian American, Irish American, Hungarian
American.

The same is true for black Briton. They are two separate words relating to two very distinct 12 and
25 often conflicting identities. If black people in Britain define themselves as British at all — I was 17
before I would admit it publicly — then they will usually put black in front of it to show that they
do not see themselves as fully British and are not always accepted as British.

For Americans, however, there seems to be a kind of confidence13 that allows a more open
discussion of race issues than in my country. During my interview for the fellowship14 at The
30 Washington Post that brought me here, I was asked what problems I faced as a black journalist in
Britain.

8
Subcontinent: subkontinent (større landmasse)
9
Indigenous: indfødt
10
Interpret: fortolke
11
Lay claim to: påberåbe sig
12
Distinct: forskellig
13
Confidence: selvtillid
14
Fellowship: stipendiat

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 5 An Englishman would never ask that sort of question. It would be considered well, rude15. I know
that one of the reasons that Americans discuss race so much is because there is so much to talk
about.

Both the present — affirmative action16, the decline17 of the inner cities, poverty, church burnings
— and the past — civil rights18, slavery, segregation19 — offer no end of subjects that can and
10 should be debated.

Nevertheless, in England, which has similar but nowhere near as acute20 social problems affecting
the black community, race ranks alongside sex, politics and religion as a topic not to be brought up
in polite conversation. At my newspaper in London I was once described to someone as "the short,
stocky21 guy with an earring," even though I am one of only half a dozen black journalists in the
15 building.

Here I look local and sound foreign — an object of fascination in public places. At home I look
foreign and sound local — and everybody tries hard not to notice. To say one is better or worse
than the other would be too simplistic. The bottom line is that I will soon return to a racism I
understand. But I will miss those extra 20 IQ points for my accent.

20

15
Rude:uhøflig
16
Affermative action: positiv særbehandling
17
Decline: forfald, tilbagegang
18
Civil rights: borgerrettigheder
19
Segregation: raceadskillelse
20
Acute: alvorlig
21
Stocky: tætbygget

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