We need a new Story 7

We are not all the same under the skin

The New Story is that under the skin, we are all the same.

This is simply not true. It’s not even true among “White People.”

Let’s take for instance the large ethnic group of white people in the US who are labelled “Scots/Irish”. From an appearance perspective, they look like your average white person. But they have a culture and a mindset very different from say descendants of the pilgrims from England who live in say, Boston.

These people originate from the Borderlands of Scotland and England. Many moved to Ireland. The borders were the wild west of the UK. They were therefore very tribal. Family was the central organization. Authority was personal not positional. Honour was paramount. Fighting was second nature. Feuds were the norm. Self-sufficiency and freedom were their religion. Women stood by their men. Children ran wild and matured early. Formal education was not deemed as important.

When they arrived in America, the Pilgrims, sent them off the borders facing the “Indians”. This was a deliberate effort to create a barrier between “Civilization” and Chaos.

Later, they formed the backbone of the Confederate Army, not because they endorsed slavery, they owned no slaves and were amongst the poorest of the poor, but because their honour would not let them stand aside. They fought to defend “Their Country” meaning their locale. They fought because if one of them fought, honour meant that all would fight They also fought because they love to fight.

That was a long time ago. You might have thought that the Scots/Irish would be well integrated into the melting pot by now.

But they are not. These attributes of disdain for formal authority, of being quick to anger and fight over points of honour are still well entrenched. It may be not surprise to you that the US Army and USMC, still contain many men and women from this cohort of Americans. They still despise urban culture. Not because they are stupid but because they always have. Today, they are labelled “Deplorables.”

Cultural memes are real.

Like genes, they also last. For we marry more easily into the same culture. Without knowing this until decades later, my wife’s and my family come from communities only a few miles away from each other in westerns part of southern Scotland, the heartland of the Scots/Irish zone. Although our families came to Canada, we share many of these traits.

This group are are only one of four distinct cultures that came from the UK and still after hundreds of years influence the culture of large swathes of the US. Here is an excellent short video that illustrates the longevity and the power of these cultures.

So, even within “Whites” there are generational cultural memes that mean in practice very different world views and ways of thinking that have nothing to do with the colour of your skin.

I did not want to make this post a “science project”. I hope that this simple focus on one subset of “White Americans” might cause some reflection on the lie of Diversity being only a matter of skin colour or that we are “All the same under the skin.”

We see these differences inside national boundaries as well. A Sicilian carries an Italian passport but comes from another planet when compared to a person from Turin or worse, Rome! A Frenchman from Calais, is very different from a Frenchman in Marseille. Both however are united in their disdain for Parisians. A Hausa is as different from an Igbo in Nigeria as a Bavarian from Munich is from a Prussian in Berlin.

You need no data from me to understand these differences. At some time or level you have seen these in action yourself. But if data and social science is your thing, then I recommend the following starting points:

Here the work of Geert Hofstede is worth a look. A one page summary of Hofstede is here

The make up of Americans of British ancestry is worth a study in the work of David Hackett Fischer’s book Albions Seed.

Next week, we examine true diversity, how differently people think and why using these differences deliberately DOES add value. Hint, this diversity in thinking has nothing to do with race.