Friday 25 November 2016

Are Cornish people victims of acceptable racism?

It is not a taboo subject to discriminate against the Cornish people as it is to discriminate against other ethnic minorities. Is Cornish-hating considered by the majority as acceptable?

I was shocked at the response to my previous blog post "Why so much hate for the Cornish?". I expected those who have experienced this sort of behaviour first-hand to relate and those who hadn't to be saddened by it. What I didn't expect was so many people to fiercely deny the very existence of this issue. To deny the existence of this type of hate is allowing it to happen; letting it slip under the radar, slowly eroding the Cornish spirit away.


I decided to gather some evidence. Granted, social media is not exactly "real life", but it is the easiest way to find and capture black-on-white proof of what should be recognised as hate speech. 

Now these are just a few examples I found on the internet one afternoon. I will apologise in advance for the absolute filth you are about to read. I would not draw attention to this if were not something I felt strongly about. 


First example; some recent comments from a Facebook page on this photo.


Do you see this as a personal attack on English people? They seem to take it that way...






Here's some examples of a generalisation or stereotype of Cornish people being "stupid", which would be considered racist if the Cornish were recognised by society as an ethnic minority.










Anyone else getting tired of being told to get over yourself? 






Then of course, there's the good old "inbred" sneer...










Now this part is important: 

Nobody is saying that this is the only type of discrimination. There are horrible people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, sexualities, nationalities and indeed BOTH sides of the Tamar. I live in hope that these people are in the minority. But that doesn't mean to say that Cornish hating doesn't exist. I expect most of these people wouldn't dream of using such language against other ethnic minorities.... or not so publicly, anyway!

Why do I feel this is so important? Why can't we just ignore these idiots? Yes of course we could... and we do! But the continued, niggling abuse of a nation, will inevitably over time have an effect.  

I believe that many Cornish people over the years may have chosen an easier life by avoiding confrontation that a "Cornish pride" attracts. How many times can a person defend their corner before being beaten into submission? I believe that people would not be so freely hateful towards the Cornish if Cornwall had the same recognition as other ethnic minorities. Yes, we were granted a "minority status", how much has that been worth? Well, that's another blog post entirely... 

Please report hate crime of any kind at all here.

10 comments:

  1. Agree with your main point that some of the comments directed at Cornish people would not be considered acceptable if directed at other ethnic minorities. Just look at come of the comments on the West Briton website when pro-Cornish comments are made.

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  2. Hi Juliet. Thanks for collating these hateful comments. I am preparing a report over the weekend which I shall be submitting to the police highlighting anti Cornish racism which is extremely common and which I find both insulting and unacceptable.

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  3. Im from the Cornish triangle in South Australia and proud of my Cornish heritage. Guess a lot of English would consider me a stupid inbred convict. Stand proud and fly the (Cornish) flag just as i do!!!

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  4. Im from the Cornish triangle in South Australia and proud of my Cornish heritage. Guess a lot of English would consider me a stupid inbred convict. Stand proud and fly the (Cornish) flag just as i do!!!

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    Replies
    1. The Cornish in Australia emigrated for the hard rock mining, not as a result of transportation.

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  5. Saddens me to read this and I've experienced it although not to such an extreme extent. Part of the problem here is the internet which provides people with what they think is anonymity to say exactly what they think...if they were to be paid a visit for inciting hatred etc then that might help.

    Ultimately the only thing that will ever stop these ignorant attitudes is recognition in the education system of the real history of the British Isles and in Cornwall, Cornish History should be taught together with our beautiful ancient language.

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  6. And we are the ignorant ones?

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  7. I think this kind of abuse is disgusting ! Made by ignorant people with their own insecurities of themselves ! It is also a Nationwide/International disease! North /south , Lancashire/Yorkshire ,America/Canada , India/Pakistan the list goes on ! The thing to remember is the "majority" of people do not hold views like this !

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  8. I agree with the above. Living in Yorkshire I occasionally read stupid comments about my home city, Liverpool. I take it these people have never visited the place or they'd realise Liverpool is far superior in every aspect to any other northern city.
    I expect the same goes for these haters - the writing is mostly uneducated so it's unlikely they know anything about this beautiful county.

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  9. Late reply to this article, followed the link here from another site. What the comments prove from social media is what us Cornish are trying to say: That us Cornish are different from those that call themselves English. So long as people set out to offend the Cornish then we Cornish can say that that is why we call ourselves Cornish. I was taught humility, vanity and ignorance seems to have been taught to others.

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