The strongest argument I can see for reparations is not that white people bear some kind of ancestral blame. In the system that made Sloane wealthy, black women sought out herbs, plant species that he carefully identified and categorised, and used them to induce abortions, determined as many were not to bring into the world children who would be born items of property and destined to live short, brutalised lives. By this logic, we ought to sue the African American community. Like the Nigerian slavers who enslaved and sold the slaves, you mean? For almost 60 years, there was impasse. First launched in London in 1987, it aims to highlight and celebrate what black people have achieved in Britain throughout history. Make sure it doesnt happen in the least costly way. if he wants to be an historian he should present a fair and realistic picture of what happened, Your email address will not be published. And yet anti-black race riots broke out in 1948 in Liverpool and in 1958 in Nottingham and Londons Notting Hill. I hadnt gotten far when she stopped me cold, pointing out that her best friend, a 15 year old girl knitting beside a window in her house, was machine gunned by an American P-51 pilot. But that is not the argument I am making. The following decades were taken up with popular and political rhetoric about immigration and parliamentary acts to limit blacks coming to Britain. Was never entirely sure which bits were believed and which bits were just a fun bit of intellectual muscle-flexing couldnt all have been intended seriously since so many posts contradicted each other. Two men managed to escape and were rescued, but not before my great, great, grandfather was beaten, starved and worked to death, his body thrown into the jungle for the animals and insects to dispose of. Some were sold to other African tribes and the rest kept as slaves. Purely speculatively, and as a matter of prediction rather than judging whats best, its hard to imagine large-scale reparations ever being adopted in Blighty because the ratio of losers to winners with the vote (presuming eg British Asians would be ineligible for compensation) is going to remain unfavourable and the cost of reparations across the relevant parts of the old Empire (if youre compensating British Jamaicans, presumably youre going to compensate all the Jamaicans in Jamaica once youve accepted the principle) would be considerable. Exactly, bis. We could just cut to the chase, and impose a reparations tax on anyone who is descended from from anyone who did something, er, wrong. The economics of the slave trade may have meant that it was cheaper to work someone to death rather than allowing him a comfortable old age. And so many hundreds of thousands of British workers were directly dependent on slavery (from sailors to those who built, rigged and repaired ships) that it was easy to turn a blind eye to the inhumanity. Even Bill Clinton had affinity for the USA. Like I need to hand my cash to the next lass of Rus descent I see, lest she remind me of some unlucky slave-girl that may or may not have perished at the hands of my maybe-ancestors? His choice of subject and his choice of material make that very clear. One of the reasons why the American and Caribbean experiences were very different. He presented the recent series of A House Through Time on BBC 2, and Black and British: A Forgotten History. I brought up paedophilia to demonstrate that there are things not worth my time. Their demands should simply be refused. Quite possibly slave-raiding Gaels before that. June 16, 2020 - 20:29 BST Aisha Nozari. It could not have happened at all unless African traders and kings had offered slaves to the Europeans. TV historian David Olusoga claims it is "palpable nonsense" to say that removing controversial statues "somehow impoverishes history". It was an apt university to experiment with such developments, since Lord Scarman, who reported on the Brixton riots of 1981, was its chancellor. Its been banned for two centuries in Britain. He was Chairman of Moneysupermarket Group from 2014 to 2019 and Senior Independent Director of Close Brothers Group plc from 2006 to 2014 and is a Past President of the Chartered Management Institute. Not a big fan of the odd human sacrifice Im afraid, even though I might just be of very partial Scandinavian descent myself. A renowned economist has said that $12 trillion should be afforded to black Americans in reparation for slavery to help the close wealth gap.. MBE, do not entertain these people, not for one second. Obama had none. Olusoga was born in Lagos to a White mother and a Nigerian father - who, I hate to say nautrally, did a runner. Giles Terera, the Olivier award-winning British performer who starred in the popular theatre production Hamilton, has recently staged a play called the Meaning of Zong about the massacre of 132 enslaved Africans aboard the slave ship Zong in 1781 and the impact it had on Equiano. (If the likes of SMFS believe Western society will fall apart without a return to traditional Christian-inspired values, I suggest they either don a pessimists crash-helmet or just cling on and enjoy the ride to Hell in their top-gear handcart. It was the first of the slave narratives that I'd ever read and I found it astonishing.". Id agree that attitudes in the UK are approaching that situation, but theres still a long, long way to go yet. Nobody will stop you, honest. Should almost go without saying except of course that it doesnt, since clearly not every culture has the same moral gut reaction to it that I do. Nineteen eighty-four was a transformative year for David Olusoga. The people in Portland, Seattle and Kenosha are too decadent to fight back. Even did something positive. Its been banned for two centuries in Britain. P rofessor David Olusoga is reviewing a disorientating year from a familiar place: his white-painted study, the one with the guitars hanging from its walls. Prof Olusoga is not the only person who has been drawn to Equiano's story. But there have been other societies with slavery where slaves had more autonomy and a greater chance of buying their freedom. I am happy with Olusogo paying reparations to himself. You might have heard of a Romano-British chap called Patrick, got enslaved and nabbed to Ireland? After all, adult males were all but worthless and demand for women might have been enough to drive the trade anyway. That someone did something 200 years ago means double ought nothing.. "I have," he admits, "a habit of . His exposure to Nigerian culture seems quite limited. He is the author of the 2016 book Black and British: A Forgotten History, which was awarded both the Longman-History Today Trustees Award 2017 and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2017. Cheap ass presentism. How would Nigeria treat a foreigner like him? David will . Then the second. If Olusoga is looking for apologies or compensation for slavery, I am quite prepared to meet him, accept his apology, togehr with cash, cheque or even a postal order. Anyway, I digress, we did have at some point, a gang of pedos turn up and put their case, reasonably, and were tolerated and conversed with. That is a strawman argument at its best. It is a good deed that must not go unpunished. They are now CM scum and couldnt care less about America. Rather the constitution banned the slave trade and so it become economically worth it to make sure slaves lived longer. Theres an argument about judging people by the standard of their times, though even in the 1500s moral and religious objections to the slave trade had been made and the rationale of crimes against humanity is that some things are so abhorrent they could never truly be legal no matter what moral code the perpetrators justified themselves with. To me personally, this is the thing. Olusogas stated purpose is to argue that black British history is not about migration and settlement, whether of black servants in the 18th century or black workers in the Windrush era. And any reparations should be paid 50% by the African states for the areas which sold the slaves and pocketed the proceeds. Hes insisting that a household headed by a 21 year old black should have the average wealth of all white households. Cest de la trs bonne dialectique conomique. I can then give him the details of other descendants, he can apologise to and compensate. A newsletter showcasing the finest writing from the ideas section, covering political ideas, philosophy, criticism and intellectual history - sent every Wednesday. I personally dont find that as convincing as the case that slaves themselves deserved compensation, and while there were strong political and practical reasons owners were compensated upon abolition but not their former slaves, it doesnt leave a great moral taste in the mouth that twas so. It's against this backdrop that Black British History Month was created. But those were in those long-lost days when democrats and republicans could talk to each other and agree to disagree while both leaving the conversation a little the wiser.. Good point, I wonder how he squares the obviously comfortable living he has writing, opining and broadcasting about slavery with his principles. Prof Olusoga says statues, such as those of slave traders . Various among the societies that were agglomerated into Nigeria were more or less involved in that slave trade from the supply end. That assumes an increase in demand. Full text must be online somewhere but theres an extract at https://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-real-vikings/articles/eyewitness-to-the-vikings. David Olusoga Latin America for instance. The Barbados slave code of 1661 stripped Africans of all human rights, and set out ways in which they were to be punished, to exert control over their labour (mutilation of the face, slitting of nostrils, castration, execution). But werent they lucky compared to the other Germans in Stalingrad? Reckon they found commenters guessing which parts of a hypothetical argument were meant all part of the fun, In many respects youre one of the posters here whose views on morality Im closest to our personal moralities probably being quite far apart, but I recognise mine as very much the product of my upbringing and surrounding society and know enough about other places and times to realise just how contingent that makes them. Should black history be taught all year round? And even if you personally disagree with it, what would be the strongest argument for some form of legal settlement? No doubt life expectancy of a slave was shorter than that for a free man. That hes able to write this article is because hes living in what is, by historical standards, a remarkably tolerant society. I imagine few do. The New Statesmans global affairs newsletter, every Monday and Friday. If you are wracked with guilt, ashamed of your forebears, do it! (At least in our society) Get over it. And that still stands even if there really are a bunch of torturing murderers out there too. There are probably a thousand organisations, charities and assorted grifters who would happily cash your cheque. Or they may discover how little black lives do matter. Sign up to receive information regarding NS events, subscription offers & product updates. I assume he is not very bright and Race Hustling is very lucrative. Maybe Europeans did increase demand. Rapidly promoted to sergeant, then second lieutenant, he led white British troops into action and died in 1918, having been mentioned in despatches and recommended for the Military Cross. But you need a different approach if you dont think great-grandkids of the Confederacy are still fair game.) In 1986 I came across the book Staying Power by the British journalist Peter Fryer. In the case of slavery the answer is clear. Thats what I dont like about the angle of Tims header. I agree BIS. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, 30,000 Jewish migrants from Russia and Eastern Europe settled in Manchester. Dr Peter Olusoga is a senior psychology lecturer at Sheffield Hallam university. That may have caused more violence. Both groups today, especially the former, could reasonably claim historic persecution has reduced their present income and wealth. Watching @worstall execute @richardjmurphy is like watching a very, very clever cat slowly killing at ataxic mouse. His dad met his mom at the city's university in the 1960s. It was far too real to her. If there were African states with legal continuity to those political entities which established and encouraged the African slave markets, they would be on the hook too, but theres a discontinuity due to colonialism and besides, everyone knows to sue the rich guy not the poor guy. As a nation, we still have only a dim understanding of the slave system that funded Sloanes collecting. I cant see this one surviving people being expected to dig into their pockets for a few trillion. Would also apply even if down a different family line there had been beneficiaries of the slave trade. If slavery really mattered theyd be campaigning for reparations from the blacks and arabs/moslems who were doing it long before the white man arrived in Africa and was far more devastating. The masses who once supported black freedom now campaigned for the Deep South. Black and British: A Forgotten History addresses one of the greatest silences in British historiography. Your email address will not be published. Shouldnt matter whether some long-dead relative fought long ago for or against (not at all to disparage your ancestors GC, who all sound very sound) in terms of whether somethings your fault. It has been reissued by publishing house Hodder and Prof Olusoga has written the foreword. Required fields are marked *. We are told that an estimated 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to the West Indies and elsewhere in the 18th century. I assume these were usually killed before Europeans turned up and bought them. So this race baiter can try his guilt trip on someone else. But any planter who deliberately starved his slaves to death would quickly go bust. Surely the US has already spent much more than that on black Americans. The evidence of this is that seasoned slaves, those exposed to the environment, sold for up to 50% more than new ones. (Britain expended blood and treasure on ending the slave trade, and thereby paid its moral debt already is one way of trying to resolve it, but rather unsatisfactory at righting the wrongs done to those who had already fallen victim to the trade.) Try his guilt trip on someone else baiter can try his guilt trip on someone else Peter Fryer headed a... 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