Yes, St. George was from Turkey, but reminding everyone persuades no-one because racism is illogical, argues Arzu
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This is a quick note. There are many (as there have always been) witty ripostes to St. George’s and these days Union flag flying. The (no longer so) thinly veiled racist connotations attached to such flag flying, initiated by the Facebook ‘Operation Raise the Colours’, are under discussion in the liberal press. The letters page of The Guardian is an example.
Ranging from (a very justified) terror of things to come:
Where does this end? I am having someone else’s view of patriotism and an enforced celebration of “Englishness” rammed down my throat, and the sheer act makes me feel less patriotic. I may have to look at this flag for months, but because there is nothing I can do about it, I’ve now started to feel a little less safe in my home. If I did say something, I would be pilloried and potentially targeted, such is the tribal jumping-on-the-bandwagon that seems to be happening in my community. I try to be tolerant of others, but somehow I am not afforded the same courtesy.
The widening inequality across this nation is slowly killing what some of us thought Britishness was all about. None of this is going to end well, even if it is about only one red and white flag.
to a more irreverent flag flyer bashing:
As a lifelong pub-goer and Guardian reader, my golden rule has always been to avoid any pub displaying Saint George’s flags and “Sky Sports shown here” banners.
and
Great to see the Saint George’s cross flying everywhere. It was first adopted by Richard Lionheart, king of England. During his reign he lived in France, barely visited England and didn’t speak a word of English. Saint George himself was a Roman soldier, born in Turkey and martyred for his Christian beliefs. Such multiculturalism makes you proud to be British.
These are par of the course when the periodic flag flying fever hits our shores, as it has done these last few decades in particular. Things do feel different and more alarming as per the first letter quoted above. Yet there is a strange strain of ‘anti-racism’ developing (I have heard it before but it seems amplified, maybe because of social media echo chambers). This post from Baroness Warsi is a good example.
Born in Turkey, raised in Palestine, a “foreigner” who never visited our shores and who died for his belief in the one God- a basic tenant of Islam and a fundamental belief of all the Abrahamic faiths.
St George was canonised by a Catholic born in Tunisia and is the patron saint… pic.twitter.com/mPGXxFRpC9— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) August 24, 2025
I appreciate that all is meant well; that this outreach to white nationalists / patriots / racists, call them what you will, is an attempt to forge unity and create an idea of united Britishness. But it fails spectacularly because it fails to understand the basic ways that racism and racist narratives work: St. George is a symbol of racist nationalism despite his origins, you cannot convince someone embedded in this (il)logic otherwise because it is illogical.
Nothing in the racist mantras of those protesting migrant hotels, demanding flag flying to ‘protest’ ‘cultural erosion’, writing op-eds in right leaning papers, is based on logic. Racism by definition is illogical. To try and use the racist attachment to a symbol as a route into deradicalizing (for want of a better word) said racist, makes no sense. It doesn’t mean that we don’t need a massive program of anti-racist education (a job that is definitely too late in coming for these last two generations currently ‘protesting’ their right to intimidate racialised others and incite violence against them).
Unless we can be brave enough to call out the nationalism sweeping our streets as racism and things dressed up as patriotism the same, we will not be able to persuade those wedded to such ideas to anything different. Certainly the way we are trying to accommodate the flag and feelings of ‘Englishness’ and ‘white Britishness’ will not persuade the target audience to include us in a (slightly) expanded version of Britishness. It may at worst and at best, encourage racialised communities to join in the flag flying in false hopes of salvation from the oncoming violence. That might be the biggest tragedy of them all.
Arzu Merali is a writer and researcher based in London, UK. Find more of her work, including details of books, full articles, podcasts and interviews on www.arzumerali.com. Find her on X and Instagram @arzumerali.
Image: Adapted from Saint George slaying the dragon, Unterlinden Museum, Colmar cc-by-2.0
