Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief.*

[thedivinegoat_archive]

The thing that interesting me about the oppressed!Welsh!wank, is that all the stereotypes people mention are foolish, comical stereotypes. Nobody has brought up the old historical stereotype of the Welsh as thieves. (Akin to the Irish as Morons stereotype)

I know this was still around when I was growing up, (Bristol, being a border city, has had a troubled relationship with Wales), but I haven't come across it in years.

Is just that I manage to avoid being around people who would express this opinion, (and I've been around people with some pretty offensive opinions) or has this stereotype vanished? Admittedly, the ties my family has to Wales†, does reduce the likelihood of someone spouting off in my presence, but not everyone knows about my family.

So, does it still exist?

It amuses me, that at the same time I'm reading about the wank, I also check the Second Life forums and come across this

Yes, Yes, I know that race involves being more than just white or black- it's an intersection a lot of things, geopgraphy,socioeconomics, etc. And I'm just talking about the US..ideas of race are totally different all over the world.

At least somebody gets it...

*Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a Thief,
Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef;
I went to Taffy's house, Taffy wasn't in,
I jumped upon his Sunday hat, poked it with a pin.
According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes this was sung on the Welsh Border on the 1st March.

† Welsh Grandfather, welsh cousins. Dad worked closely with welsh miners and counted many as good friends. At his funeral gratitude was expressed that he had shown what life was like for the miners, not what the PTB wanted it to be like. We very nearly moved to the Rhondda when I was nine.

Comments

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

I actually find this very topical, because we're just starting to talk about the black community in Liverpool in my anthropology class. Our teacher warned all the American students that they couldn't apply American perceptions or concepts of race because race in England just means different things. I think people are having trouble with that sometimes.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I've been suffering from a "Taffy was a Welshman" brainworm since this subject started to go round my flist; it was one of the things my Grandmother recited to me when I was little, all of the traditional verses. This is amusing because her maiden name was Stradling, and her maternal grandmother was called Mary Hopkins...

Julia, American of mostly Gaelic origin