Discussion on British Identity and Ancestry
Are you British?
I am a British man. I'm an Englishman.
You're an Englishman, you're British.
I am British.
Am I British?
Well, I, let's have, we can have a discussion about that.
Uh, I believe that to be British is about a lineage in this country, a
collective ancestry.
Okay. So what's my collective ancestry?
I don't know, you'll have to tell me.
So what do you define to be a collective ancestry?
Ireland-
Do my, do my parents need to be born here?
Ireland, Scotland, Wales-
So-
... England
... if my parents were both born here in this
country, and I am born in this country, am I British?
Well, you have a British passport, but you're not part of the collective
ancestry,
so-
My mom is born in this country. My dad is born in this country.
I am born in this country. Where would you like me to live?
Let me ask you a question then. So, and, and I, I think this is always an
interesting thought experiment.
Go for it. Ask your racist question.
Okay. I'm not a racist, but okay.
You told me I don't belong here.
Um-
You literally said my ancestry is not from here
... are you gonna, are you gonna chill out
and let me respond then?
Sure.
All right. Thank you.
Let's... Sorry, is a, sorry, is a privileged white
male gonna tell me to chill out?
If I went to Bangladesh-
Yep
... and then I married an English woman in
Bangladesh, and I had a
child in Bangladesh, would my child be Bengali?
No, because you're not born in Bangladesh.
So if I married an English woman in Bangladesh, I had an English child,
and then my English child married an E- an, an English...
well, when they grew up, married another English person
and then had a child, that
child would then be what? Bengali.
Both. It's called dual nationality.
Well, no. Do you know who would disagree with you?
Who? You? Me?
The Bangladeshi community. They, they would think it's hilarious.
You go to China, they would laugh at you.
You go to Russia, they would laugh at you.
For some reason in Britain, we, we, we just can, anyone can be British,
but in every other country, it's very obvious who's of
that country and who's not.
So I'm gonna go back to my original question.
Yes.
I, according to you,
am I British or not? Yes or no?
On paper, you are.
No, yes or no.
I'm answering your question. Yeah, but there's this thing called nuance in a
conversation. It should be respected. It's how debates work.
So legally speaking, as it stands, yes, you have a British
passport, so legally, yes. In terms of-
Do you believe I shouldn't do?
I, I don't believe you are British.
And that is why white middle-class men like you
should not be telling women of color who they are
End of transcript · 494 words