A Trinidadian of African descent claimed full English identity before Queen Victoria.

Evidence

Colonial officials, apparently, were not the only ones who might be shocked by the discovery of “civilized” west Indians. Dr. Stephen Laurence observed: “Perhaps the best resume and the most fitting comment on this question is the reply said to have been given to her Majesty Queen Victoria at her Jubilee [in 1897] by the late Mr. Lazare [Emmanuel Mzumbo Lazare, a solicitor and conveyancer, born in Trinidad in 1864], himself of pure African stock: ‘Do you speak English in Trinidad?’ asked her Majesty. ‘Madam in Trinidad we are all English.’” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2338

Dr. Stephen Laurence observed: “Perhaps the best resume and the most fitting comment on this question is the reply said to have been given to her Majesty Queen Victoria at her Jubilee [in 1897] by the late Mr. Lazare [Emmanuel Mzumbo Lazare, a solicitor and conveyancer, born in Trinidad in 1864], himself of pure African stock: ‘Do you speak English in Trinidad?’ asked her Majesty. ‘Madam in Trinidad we are all English.’” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2338

Categorization

• CANDY: A brilliantly concise anecdote about colonial identity that travels well in conversation.
• SEED: Essay angle: how colonial subjects weaponized their own ‘civilization’ against the metropolitan assumption that blackness equals backwardness.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2338