即使是雅各布·里斯-莫格也反对用纯粹种族术语定义英格兰身份。但这种论调的持久存在仍令人深感不安。你能既是英格兰人又是非白人吗？这是一个在我们的政治话语中顽固反复出现的问题。
Even Jacob Rees-Mogg pushes back on defining Englishness in exclusively ethnic terms. But the endurance of this discourse is still deeply troubling Can you be English and non-white? It’s a question that keeps stubbornly resurfacing in our political discourse.
上周末，前首相里希·苏纳克在《泰晤士报》的专栏中发表了观点，认为国家身份不应变成DNA测试。
Last weekend, the former prime minister Rishi Sunak gave his view in a column in the Times, arguing that national identity should not be turned into a DNA test.
卸任后，作为英国首位有色人种首相的苏纳克，遭到一位知名播客主持人的指责，称他不是英格兰人，因为他是“棕色皮肤的印度教徒”。
After leaving office, Sunak, the UK’s first prime minister of colour, was subject to claims by a prominent podcaster that he was not English because he was a “brown-skinned Hindu”.
对此，苏纳克将其描述为“反向特比特测试”：这一社会学概念根据移民及其子女在国际板球比赛中支持哪支队伍，来衡量他们在英国的忠诚度。
Reflecting on this, Sunak described it as a “reverse Tebbit test”: the sociological concept measuring the loyalty of immigrants – and their children – in the UK depending on which cricket team they supported in international matches.
“一旦我们说这个或那个人不是真正的英格兰人或英国人，因为他们不是白人，”他写道，“我们就踏上了一条非常危险的斜坡。有人会争辩说英格兰身份是种族身份，而英国身份是公民身份。
但如果你认为大多数人能听懂这些细微差别，我担心你相当天真——甚至可能是故意天真。”
“Once we say that this or that person isn’t really English or British because they are not white,” he wrote, “then we are on a very slippery slope. Some people will argue that English is an ethnic identity and British a civic identity. Though if you think those nuances are heard by most people, I fear you are being rather – perhaps even wilfully – naive.”