Diversity, wha'?

The northeast of England, Newcastle in particular, is quite white as you can imagine. Around the campus, a few non-white students and faculty appear from time to time, but it is rare. Factoring in for psychological phenomena such as uncertainty reduction, I think my perceptions are pretty clear that this (England, at least) is the genetic home of our nation, even today. I have seen the genetic dcuble of just about every white person I know. Seriously.

One half of Daria's family is English and last week, while sitting in a coffee shop, an elderly woman sat down beside us and struck up a conversation. When we finished and walked out, Daria said, "We just had a conversation with my resurrected mother!" and it was true. Beyond an uncanny resemblance, she had the same vocal habits, even gestures. A very strange moment, indeed.

However, what is even more striking though is the dialectical diversity here. While everyone may be white, everyone does NOT speak alike. The notion of an English accesnt is a total fiction. Some folks sound surprisingly like Americans or Canadians; some sound Irish, some Scottish, some Scandinavian, some Geordie. (The latter are the hard-core natives of this area and are not understandable. Period.) It strikes me as particularly interesting that such diversity exists, but I'm not sure what the exact effect may be. No doubt there is a degree of identification, the formation of in and out groups, etc. But it must have a cultural root and effect. I often think about the white students at CSUS that I have had to feel they have no culture because they are white. I wish they all oculd spend a few weeks here to get a sense of the deep and diverse culture that may even still be genetically connected to them.

While not at dialectical artifact (I don't think), here's another sign I found to be interesting but, alas, meaningless!