When I was about five years old I was told for the first time that I can recall that I was a “Yewra-peen”. I had no idea what it meant until I asked my parents.
In those days we had population classification, and by law I was “European”.
The definition has never suited me, and I was relieved when in later years the word “white” was substituted for “European”, even though I disliked being classified like that anyway.
Until 1994 being “white” was a ticket to (a certain amount of) privilege. Since then it has largely been the reverse.
What riles me, though, is that while the laws under which the population was classified as “European” and “non-European” (later “white” and “non-white”) have been repealed, the present government is every bit as insistent as the apartheid government in identifying applicants for all sorts of things with the same or similar labels.
Back in the 1950s all bars had to have signs up indicating the race for which the premises were licensed – “Europeans only” or “Non-Europeans only”.
A US naval vessel tied up in Cape Town harbour, and when the doughboys came into town they were nonplussed by the term, and wanted to know: “Where can us Americans get a drink?”
If I were to go and live permanently in Europe (Britain or the Continent), I would certainly not want to be identified as a European.
I am fond of the old national and subnational categories.
My (most recent) German ancestors were Württembergese. In fact my great-grandfather was an officer in the Württemberg Army in 1870/71, not the Prussian, Saxon, Baden or Bavarian army.
Those who came from the British Isles were either English or Scottish – none of them referred to themselves as being British.
No EU identification for me, thank you.
Regards,
Mike