And They Call It Poppy Love

I was getting ready this morning thinking about what I was going to start my day off blogging about. Sometimes I do on the spur of the moment blogs, others I've had in my head for a little while about what I want to get off my chest and just talk about.

Remembrance Sunday they call it in the UK or Veterans Day in the USA. A month where the war heroes that perished are remembered on 11th November at 11am and the Sunday closest to this date.

In the UK people will make a donation in exchange for a poppy and wear one. I don't know if anything similar is done in the USA or not. The thing is I see a ton of white people wearing them and so far in November have yet to see one person of colour wearing one.

There is always this running joke/truth that English people say "If it wasn't for us you'd be speaking German." Of course meaning if they didn't win against the war against the Germans then English people would be speaking a different language entirely.

NOT ME!

I think many blacks and other ethnic groups [notice I didn't say minority. I'll be blogging about that another time] don't feel the same sentiment to the war in England like white English people do. Yes the odd black man had been in the UK before the massive influx in the late 40's and 50's from the West Indies, but many of them [my grandparents and parents included] came into the UK from Jamaica at the request of the country to help rebuild it post World War II. My mother arrived here in 1957 aged 6.

I had to remind my boss that I would indeed be speaking English whether the UK won the war against the Germans or not. The only bearing it would have had on me would be I'd maybe be living somewhere else, Jamaica, the US or like I am now living the UK. And I wonder if this is the main reason why as Black Brits in the UK we feel no association with the happenings of the war? Black men and women and those of other ethnic groups did fight and perish in the two world wars, but to be honest anybody who is taught under the British schooling system aren't taught these facts. When you're a child and your learning history that doesn't or you think doesn't apply to you it's not all that interesting. It shouldn't be that way but in a lot of instances it is unfortunately.

Black people have lent a hand in shaping the history and a lot of our ancestors have been written out of the history books, so it's no surprise to me if somebody in their teens, to late 20's didn't know about our involvement in the wars that came before us and I could also understand their frustration about not wanting to wear a poppy when they feel it's only the white British soldiers who were remembered.

I think it was some years ago there was some big commotion about there wanting to be a black poppy to remember the fallen and forgotten black soldiers. Oh my goodness the outcry. I think if there was one I would wear it. But guess what, and I didn't know this before but it is true, there are purple poppies for…………

………..the animals that perished in the war.

ONLY IN FRIGGIN ENGLAND.

People here sure love their animals over humans, but my point is I personally see the poppy as a symbol worn by British people for the [white] British that perished in the war on this land. Not for the black and Indians brought over from their home countries around the world or even the American soldiers black and white who came over to help in the fight. It doesn't represent a global remembrance, only a domestic one for those native to its land.

Now people can argue till their blue in the face about who the poppy represents but I don't believe it was introduced to remember the hired help, nor are the hired help remembered like they should be. And maybe that's why I hardly see any poppy wearers of Indian, African and other races apart from white who lent a hand on these shores in the fight against the Germans.

The British really think they did this on their own, and I even remember reading that the British Army wanting to recruit members of the Jamaican army to go and fight alongside them in Iraq. Typical!