Nigel,Given my context, I have a hard time hearing that as anything but racist. I'll trust you that it's not intended as such.I hold up my hands: I was wrong and I have been foolish. Any racist tones in what I wrote were certainly not intendit.
Just to keep everything clear, because I've had the pleasure of reading your posts for ages and you have no idea who I am ;-), I certainly believe that you intended no racism and I did not mean to imply that you did. I also know that you have quite a sense of humor and I shouldn't take all of the above literally. :-)
Taking the toast as one sentence, "Here's tae us wha's like us," reads as exclusionary to me, still resident in the U.S. where self-deprecation often takes the contradictory form of self-aggrandizement and belittling others. Perhaps the famed Scottish (or is it Irish? please don't slam me too hard if it is ;-) self-deprecation must be read into the line, perhaps not. The arrogance implicit in a small but present minority of the responses to my comment suggests that it's not a universal trait.
I'll revise my comment though to this: Given my context (U.S., white, middle-class, Jewish, well-educated, disabled), I have a hard time hearing the toast (when taken as a single sentence) as anything but prejudice based upon a fact or assumption of a difference of heritage and/or ethnicity. Because I've read enough of your writing to come to respect you Nigel, I'll trust your assertion (unless you've chosen to recant it ;-) that it's not intended as such.
Regards,
Emma
(Massachusetts, U.S.)
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