#like no i would not want the best for someone who invaded my country unprovoked

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

ah yes, she's concerned about the aggressor and attacker who was invading them six months ago. something is wrong with the empire right now, poor edelgard; whatever could've happened to her? :(

like... what. why do you care about what's going on with her specifically when she's the person who made the decision to invade leicester? does the whole war just mean nothing to marianne? it's just totally fine that all those people died in a war edelgard started? poor edelgard, something happened to her after she started her attack? you're concerned about the leader who gave the order to attack your home?

hopes has stupid lines but this one is top tier of the top tier and just an excuse for more edelgardjerking from the writers.

[cynicinafishbowl]

Discourses On Remembrance Day

So today, I attended an ‘optional’ Remembrance Day ceremony at work. I use inverted commas because it wasn’t compulsory, but because I was looked in the eye by a number of (white) colleagues, and asked if I was planning to attend the ceremony, because they thought that I too was a white Australian, and so of course I would be attending. This treatment was not extended to colleagues who migrated to Australia when they reached adulthood. 

I have dual Australian and Canadian citizenship. My mother was born in Australia to postwar European immigrants, and my father was born in Canada also to postwar European immigrants. My younger sisters were also born in Australia, and my older sister was born in Canada. We all hold dual citizenship, and see ourselves as belonging to both countries. While I cannot speak for my sisters, I don’t, however, see myself as being ‘white’. There are two reasons for this. The first is that in Australia, being ‘white’ implies that your family is almost entirely descended of British or Western European (and by that I mean French/Belgian/Dutch/Scandinavian/German) stock, and pretty distantly at that. It implies that your family have been in Australia at least since Federation (1901), and that someone or many someones along the line served in the Australian Armed Forces during a (World) War. The second reason is that being Jewish, I can never truly participate in the pervasive white Australian narrative, because that narrative is a very Anglican one. Stepping past the fact that I’m 1/4 Greek, and aware of my culture, thus qualifying me as a ‘wog’, my family’s culture is too ‘other’ for me to identify as ‘white’. My appearance is white, but because of my family’s culture and history, I see myself as being ‘ethnic’.

As the descendant of Jews who were in Europe during WWII (or, let’s be real, before that too, Europe hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to the Jews), I have a problematic relationship with military remembrance. I’m not saying that remembering the contribution of past and fallen service personnel is a bad thing. It’s not. I’m just saying that I cannot relate to it, and I resent being forced to participate in it. I am descended from people who fled numerous unprovoked military actions against them, military actions brought on just because the ruling class didn’t like these people who spoke a different language and didn’t worship their god.

During the address by the head of the branch I work at, a third generation Australian serviceman, there were many mentions of the heroism of his forebears, how they gave their lives/limbs in the defence of our nation &c. Talk about how they gave their lives for our freedom and so on. Only they didn’t. They gave their lives for the freedom of white Australians. As he spoke about where they fought, and the battlefields which hold the bodies of Australian servicemen, the one thing running through my head was “I’m glad you know where and how your great-grandfather fought and died, and can pat yourself on the back about it twice a year, because some of us don’t have that luxury. Some of us just have to guess. Don’t talk to me about how they gave their lives for me, because they did not. When Czechoslovakia was annexed, nobody batted an eye. When Poland was invaded, nothing was done. It was only when France was invaded that any world powers really bothered galvanising themselves. Liberating the camps wasn’t a priority the way protecting white Western Europeans was. Consciously trying to exterminate the Jews wasn’t really an issue, because the world didn’t really need that many Jews in it, did it, but Hitler invading France was just a bridge too far in a way that all of his Eastern European forays apparently weren’t.”

People can remember however they want. But I should not be forced to participate in their remembrance, especially not when the only reason I am being consciously included, and am expected to be seen to be participating, is because people see my fair skin and blue eyes, and assume that I’m white like them.