1 day ago
13
Hugh Muir’s investigation of his genetic inheritance (When racists shout ‘Go home’, and you come from 15 places, what to do?, 1 January) prompts the important observation that we are not “identity parcels labelled from one destination, ready to be returned to sender”. However, the fact that DNA testing indicates several points of genetic connection does not mean that “there is a viable case that home could be a lot of places”, unless you consider home and identity to be some sort of mathematical percentage game. Neither does it invalidate a sense of belonging to any one place. It does, however, confound the assumptions of those who insist on seeing identity in essentialist terms, either ethno-nationally or racially.
What Muir’s being “settled but never quite cosy” more accurately identifies is the sense that for some of us, being born in Britain confers a sense of Britishness that can sometimes feel like an honorary status. Periodically, that feeling is exacerbated by immigration policy and by the intemperate debates it ignites. We are now experiencing one of those periods, as the hostility of rightwing populism is accompanied by a rise in hate crime(Racial and religious hate crime on UK public transport is growing, data shows, 2 January). Muir is therefore right to call for a more positive “conversation” before many more become like the man who “felt, for the first time, the need to watch his back”.
Paul McGilchrist
Cromer, Norfolk
Having grown up knowing that my ancestors were a mixed bunch, I was delighted to find that I and my siblings have many nationalities in our family history. I’m white with, so far, 10 different parts of the world I can apparently call home. I’m 27% English, 53% Irish (Eire) and the rest show the travels through Europe by my Roma ancestry.
My DNA shows signs of travel and immigration. Many people on our little island will have the same or similar. I’ve a feeling if we all chose a different “home” to go to there wouldn’t be many people left to run the ship.
Elizabeth Whitaker
Giffnock, Glasgow
As Hugh Muir says, telling people to “go home” is nonsense. I was born in Africa, in a self-governing British colony. My parents were English speaking white South Africans. I lived in South Africa for a while as an adult but migrated to Australia in the 1980s to prevent my son being conscripted by the South African government to fight for apartheid in the townships.
My DNA test came back with the expected English, Scottish, and German ancestry. There was also Dutch and a touch of African DNA.
So I am sometimes asked where I am from. My accent can be hard to place. What should I say?
Dr Meg Perkins
Hastings Point, New South Wales
Hugh Muir’s article struck a strange chord with me. As middle-aged white man with no strong regional accent, I would attract no attention from the “go home” crew in England. Yet I was born in Zambia, have lived in Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, and hold British, Canadian and Swiss citizenship. When people ask where I am from, I genuinely struggle to answer. If told to “go home”, I would be equally bemused.
I am not comparing my situation with his. I do not have to endure the racism that he and so many others do. I simply echo the incoherence of the simplistic concept of “home” and reinforce the brutal point that it is really only skin colour that matters to the casual xenophobe.
David Hart
Renens, Switzerland
