Reader's Forum

To the Editor:

Having studied in England spring term 2007, I can attest to much of what Seth Gorenstein says.  

The Englishman-or woman, he forgot to include the tea-sipping granny with wild white hair, frumpy dress and apron, wielding umbrella or pocketbook to stun football hooligans-is not the stereotype created by old television imports on public broadcasting.  

The British public, though bound together by a common appreciation for little joys such as the hour of sun per day in winter, a bird, a sprig of grass, is not completely Anglo-Saxon.

The echoes of Empire have brought large groups from Asia and Africa, and particularly India.

Hence the culinary penchant for chutney, curry and chai alongside the native staples of fish and chips, bangers and mash, scones and clotted cream.

Yet Gorenstein's overall impression of England is skewed. He lives in London, where multiculturalism abounds.  Were he to travel farther, he would increasingly find less diversity.

 London, in that it is an international city and hub, naturally has an international population fueled by the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union.

What Gorenstein furthermore fails to address is what it actually means to be English.  

His summation seems to be that to be English is to reside in England as a citizen, as if to say that England is no different than the United States and so to dwell in the United States as a citizen is to be American.  

Fine.  But this seems to be a cursory and simplistic, if not rigid definition of identification, but one not suited well enough to what Gorenstein calls "today's globalized world."

Let me suggest an alternate definition of identity:  Cultural and ethnic identity, while influenced by state, country of residence and familial background, is not bound to any of these factors.

Rather, identity is based on a personal connection and sense of sameness with multiple outer-defined groups of gender, culture, ethnicity and country, a combination of which makes up an individual's identity.

 At present, diversity begins in the individual in which pluralities of identity dwell simultaneously, layered and unseen, micro-countries in a single body.

 The "Londoner," as Gorenstein ambiguously states, is not an exception.

Maria Eliades '07