Internalized Oppression in Wales

Britain was not always “White”

*Content Warning* British colonial trauma

Screenshot Image description: The Red Dragon national flag of Wales showing a detailed red dragon with a serpent like tongue, wolf life head, pointed tail, wings, all on a background of white at the top and green on the bottom. The white is said to represent north Wales snowcapped mountains while the green represents the valles of south Wales. Text in the bottom left hand corner reads: “St David’s Day”

Do you know what today is?

It’s St. David’s Day.

St. David is the patron saint of Wales (I know this because I lived in Wales for three years and have a deep love and respect for that land). As the patron saint of Wales, St. David made Wales into a Christian country by preaching and building cathedrals and enforcing strict monasteries and fighting battles with all the usual fanatic Christian supremacy. He did this all over Wales and also across Southwest England.

For those who are unfamiliar with how this works because you’ve been listening to colonizer narratives all your life, what all of that means is that St. David was involved in genociding the Indigenous Welsh tribes and forcibly converting them to Christianity. The descendants of those forcibly converted peoples celebrate this history and “St” David is thus a symbol of national pride.

Screenshot Image description: Traditional St. David’s Day parade in Wales where the crowd are flying the Welsh Red Dragon flag alongside St. David’s flag of a yellow cross on a black background. Some of the celebrators are wearing kilts, and tartans. The sky is blue, the sun is bright, and the parade is in a paved street next to a red bricked building on the right.

When I lived in Wales, I saw the Welsh people celebrating this day and felt pain that they were so unaware of their internalized oppression they were celebrating the genocide and…