On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 18:38:20 +0100, "Peter Duncanson [BrE]"
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 13:19:09 -0700 (PDT), Dingbat
Post by DingbatI ask: Was Jane Austen trying to show the British as less racist in
order to suggest that Americans be less racist?
I believe it may be of surprise to many regarding how different British society was to American at that time. It does seem to make the British
much less racist.
The situation in Britain at that time was very different. There were
very few black people living there.
Many black Africans who arrived in Britain did so as sailors who decided
to leave their ship and stay. Sailors being male there were no black
women for them to marry so they married local white women. They were
numbered in a few thousands in a population of millions. The skin colour
and facial features became less distinctive through the subsequent
generations.
After a few generations their descendants would almost all be seen as
White. [1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_African_presence_in_London#Post-war_period
In 1950, it was estimated there were no more than 20,000 non-White
residents in the United Kingdom, mainly in England; almost all born
overseas.
Just after the end of World War II, the first groups of post-war
Caribbean immigrants started to emigrate and settle in London. There
were an estimated 492 that were passengers on the HMT Empire
Windrush that arrived at Tilbury Docks on 22 June 1948. These
passengers settled in the area of Brixton which is now a prominently
Black district in Britain. From the 1950s into the 1960s, there was
a mass migration of workers from all over the English-speaking
Caribbean, particularly Jamaica; who settled in the UK. These
immigrants were invited to fill labour requirements in London’s
hospitals, transportation venues and railway development. There was
a continuous influx of African students, sportsmen, and businessmen
mixed within British society. They are widely viewed as having been
a major contributing factor to the rebuilding of the post-war urban
London economy.
[1] There are few people who show signs of possible black African
ancestry such as the Welsh singer Tom Jones. When he became known in the
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/tom-jones-reveals-he-is-taking-dna-test-to-determine-if-he-has-black-ancestors-after-claims-he-is-a6717546.html
Sir Tom Jones has announced he is going to have a DNA test to see if
he has black ancestry, claiming he is often mistaken for being black
due to the texture of his hair.
Speaking to the Times, Jones said some people thought he was “just
passing as white” when he moved to America, even though he was born
to Welsh and English parents.
“A lot of people still think I’m black. When I first came to
America, people who had heard me sing on the radio would be
surprised that I was white when they saw me. Because of my hair a
lot of black people still tell me I’m just passing as white.”
That statement that he "has announced he is going to have a DNA" was not
correct. It was a misunderstanding. He says in an interview that he had
said he would not be "opposed to" a DNA test.
Further to that there was a major increase in the number of black men in
Britain during World War Two in the form of 130,000 black GIs.
This reviews the book "Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black
Heroes, at Home and at War", by US journalist Linda Hervieux,
publ. 2015.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/12035018/Revealed-How-Britons-welcomed-black-soldiers-during-WWII-and-fought-alongside-them-against-racist-GIs.html
Review headed:
Revealed: How Britons welcomed black soldiers during WWII, and
fought alongside them against racist GIs
Black American GIs billeted in the UK during WWII found warm welcome
from British families, in contrast to vicious racist abuse meted out
by their fellow countrymen
One extract:
The presence of so many black troops on British soil had a lasting
legacy in a country that was soon to see an influx of Afro-Caribbean
migrants, starting with the arrival of the Windrush ship at Tilbury,
in 1948.
While most people have heard of the GI babies the US troops left
behind, few have considered that many of these children were of
mixed-race, the offspring of affairs between local white women and
the black soldiers they encountered.
Many of those “brown babies” only came to know their fathers in
later years, with some of their descendants now embarking on a
search for their American grandfathers.
Miss Hervieux said: “Given the racial tensions that exist in Britain
today, as in other countries, it is hard to believe that the UK was
once a relative racial paradise for African Americans. Britons were
willing to open their hearts and minds to fellow human beings who
were there to help them.
She added: “Their efforts extended beyond mere hospitality. True and
deep friendships developed, some of which endured long after the
war. Although Britons suffered through vicious bombings that ravaged
the country and extreme privation, they never forgot basic human
kindness.”
The treatment the men received at the hands of ordinary British men
and women also had a significant impact on post-war America,
believes Mrs Hervieux.
“In Britain America’s black soldiers were welcomed and treated with
respect and kindness. Once they returned home, there was no going
back,” she said. “Equitable treatment abroad helped fuel the budding
civil rights movement that would rock America in the coming
decades.”
Another extract:
Another member of the 320th [Barrage Balloon Battalion with black
soldiers and white officers] was Wilson Monk , who was billeted in
the basement of the town’s Trinity Methodist church.
Here he met the organist Godfrey Prior, a milkman, who quickly
invited him to join the congregation.
<photo of Wilson Monk>
Mr Prior’s wife Jessie took it on herself to provide Monk with the
occasional home cooked meal and – with her 18-year-old boy Keith
away on active service - came to look on him as a surrogate son.
In February 1944 she wrote a touching letter from her home in the
village of Abersychan to Monk’s mother Rosita, in Atlantic City, New
Jersey, to reassure her about her son’s well-being.
** Mrs Prior, who like most Britons outside of the port cities of
** Liverpool, Cardiff, London and Bristol, has never seen a black
** person before, told her:
“Mrs Monk, you have a son to treasure and feel very proud of. We
have told him he can look upon our home as his home while in our
country. We shall take every care of him . . . we will look upon
him now as our own.”
Adjacent to that text is this quotation:
“The general consensus of
opinion seems to be that the
only American soldiers
with decent manners are the
Negroes.”
George Orwell
There is much more in that review.
I've read elsewhere that when black GIs arrived in Northern Ireland
during WWII at least one commented something like "This is the first
time I've been called an American".
{Northern Ireland was the landing place and initial "home" for GIs sent
to the UK.
https://wartimeni.com/forces-in-northern-ireland/united-states-army/
United States Army in Northern Ireland
The first troops of the United States Army to enter the European
Theatre of Operations landed at Dufferin Dock, Belfast, Co. Antrim
on 26th January 1942.
Between 1942 and the end of World War Two, around 300,000 American
service personnel passed through Ulster. At its peak, US military
personnel made up around 1/10th of Northern Ireland's population.
American troops were scattered across the country as they prepared
to enter battle in North Africa and Normandy. While training, they
opened Irish eyes to American culture. This included sports such as
American Football and Baseball. By the end of the Second World War,
American GIs had made a huge impression on the people of Northern
Ireland. In fact, almost 2,000 women from Ulster became GI brides
and left Irish shores to start a new life in the USA during
peacetime.
Without Northern Ireland, I do not see how the American forces
could have been concentrated to begin the invasion. The city of
Belfast, its facilities, people, and influences made possible
the beginning of that concentration.
General Dwight D Eisenhower, Speech at Belfast City Hall,
August 1945.
}
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
