22 November 2006

100 percent English or not


I recently watched a fascinating documentary on Channel 4 (13th Nov., 9pm). This show called '100% English' was commissioned by the production company and presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

It was a pleasure to watch the expressions of people when they found out they were not "100% English". Reveals that racial issues are not limited to Malaysia but does exist in the UK too.

Carol Manley, an elderly lady looked quite relieved when it was revealed that she didn't have any African blood and she actually said it in her own words, which I think might be considered racist. However, she took it quite well when it was revealed that she had Mongoloid blood too.

There were some visible positive impacts of this study. I noticed a visible change in the attitude of people after they found that they were not ethnically pure after all. On the other hand, some people did not take it so well.

A lady lawyer who campaigns to have the English accepted as a distinct ethnic group was clearly disturbed when her DNA test results was revealed. She was not happy with her newly discovered Romany (Gypsy) origins. Four days later, she was threatening legal action against channel 4.

As Andrew notes:
these tests could be a powerful tool in the fight against racism. It is not just that they prove, once and for all, that any notions of race or racial purity are patently absurd and scientifically wrong. Their power lies in that they prove it by showing people what is in their own blood.

Read the Telegraph report here.

Tags:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i like this entry...

Anonymous said...

I hate to do this but sorry I'm doing it anyway. Relating the article to our beloved country, Malaysia, that is.

If such a test were conducted on some of our more 'racially-sensitive' politicians, there would probably be a series of deliberate 'cover-up' and refusal to accept the results.

That's what they do best anyway - whenever facts and figures don't turn out favorable, they refute them as baseless.

Anonymous said...

what's so shameful about finding out if you are not 100% what you are? i for one, would be happy to know if i'm not 100% pure chinese. i would be happy to know if i have some other blood in me.

some people even when they are mistaken as another race, the would get angry. for me, i would get amused. i had been mistaken before as a malay, filipino and thai.

Lrong Lim said...

pretty interesting indeed... the responses tell a lot about the individual him/herself...

*lynne* said...

perhaps whoever it is who's running this genetic heritage testing service should provide counselling to participants, kinda like how they do with AIDS testing - discuss what their expectations are, what they would do if the results don't match their expectations ...

... but I find it "satisfying" to see someone who thinks of herself as "pure" "English" is actually "corrupted" with GYPSY blood, of all things, haahahaha serves her right! Me, I'd be more than happy to see what my blood says about me... it would be an interesting mix since I'm already half European & half Malaysian,,, and my Malaysian half has ties to Pakistan, I believe. What else is in there, I would love to find out :-)

Dilip Mutum said...

I think my kid's DNA test results should be quite interesting too.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin