I know before I begin that some will condemn talk of an English ethnicity as 'racist' or 'xenophobic' or even 'non-existant', but I maintain that such a thing exists, and that it can be positive. The definition of 'ethnic' is:
- Of or relating to a sizable group of people sharing a common and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage.
On language and culture: Englishness certainly exists, on nation and religion: there at least is something worth saying, on race: I say English is not a racial label.
Nothing in this article is meant to be derogatory to other ethnic groups, or to say that English people are better, but only to point out where differences exist and (with fear of sounding too 'fluffy') to celebrate them.
Reclaiming the English identity from racists and xenophobes is not easy, but to sit back and claim 'it does not exist' while all about us the Irish and Scots and Welsh and Manx and Cornish celebrate their identity will only serve to prolong the problem.
Please help to sever the link between Englishness and hate, and try not to sweep all talk under the carpet.
P.O.V.
I have no problems with the notion of an "English identity." However, this article had a bit too much P.O.V. with the comments about political correctness trying to water down the identity--views, by the way, which I agree with wholeheartedly, but people ought to be able to decide for themselves. I tried to edit it a bit to give it more of a "neutral" flavor.--MegaSilver 17:49, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)