Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Black History Month

Yes to BHM, overall a good initiative in raising more awareness about how it really was back then.

On a wider note, the radical voice tends to be the voice that is heard above the chatter and so even though we may sense some imbalance in the current newsworthy views we may also look back and accept that a strident point was made and now we all understand a little more. That said, I am against the cull of statues (actually I'm against the idea of statues in the first instance believing that memorials do that job much more even handedly) and against 'cancelling' or any action that limits free speech, our parents fought hard for us to enjoy this precious freedom.

I'm all for making the world a wiser place and to learn from the lessons of history, I just wonder who will adjudicate on which version of history is the true version. And how eg the Spanish Conquest of South America can be put in context of the similar cruelties and conquests of the eg the Inca and Aztec Empires in their day

The history of the UK is littered with the 'locals' being invaded, conquered and subjugated from aboard from the Celts, the Romans, the Angles, the Saxons, the Vikings, the Normans even the Dutch to mention just a few. Invaders who in turn robbed us of our identity, our culture and our language and often made slaves of us traded throughout Europe.

Yet it appears we Brits are not apparently owed any redress/apologies for the grievances and wrongs done to us, seems a double standard at play here.

The Barbary pirates took whole villages from the south coast of England and Ireland into white slavery in Africa, but it rarely gets a mention. It wasn't until England developed a workable Navy that this practice stopped.

But it's not just that is it. Who should the Egyptians be offering compensation to? And so on...........

Absolutely..........where does it all end? Interestingly some may argue where it all started, that is with the Homo Sapien domination and displacement of all other Homo species when they left the cradle of civilisation AFRICA. .

Try as I might I can't find this anywhere on the BHM site, I'll give Sarah a call

Actor Morgan Freeman has criticised Black History Month on numerous occasions, calling it "ridiculous."

"I don't want a black history month," he said, "black history is American history."

1. Looks like this is really "Africa History Month" from the article. Quick summary: where Homo Sapiens came from. Had some local civilizations, had colonial incursions by others in boundary areas (Greek, Roman, Arabic) followed by wider European trade (including W Africa slave trade in conjunction with local slave traders) and then colonialization. Post-colonial independence has been a basket case scenario for some countries.

2. Mostly School History covers national history - ie in the UK, UK history. But wider history is also important (Persia, Mogul , China, etc).

3. I use a mirror test for "racism": if I swap epiphets around, would be acceptable? eg footballer sponsors poor white kits for university places; schools announce white history month; etc. On the other hand if it addresses a lack of coverage ie all the other time we have "Non-black history year" then it should be accepted as a correction, and the curriculum fixed...

The native Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders seem to have had a worse deal than the Africans during the period of empire building. The whole sorry mess is a disgrace. But looking back and applying modern thinking isn't going to change history. Nor is trying to obliterate parts of that history which some people don't like.

More should be done to encourage people to look at a more rounded version of the whole issue of expansion and subjugation of endemic populations everywhere. Starting with Mesopotamia.................

Man's inhumanity to man knows no bounds thru the annals of history, from the Indian Mogul Emperors who set the regional Governors annual targets for number of Hindu's to be murdered may have claimed upwards of 8 to 20 million lives. Under the Japanese occupation pogroms in China an estimated 10 to 30 million Chinese died. Genghis Khan is said to have killed 1,748,000 people in a single hour. The Holocaust claimed 6 million souls. The Manchu invasion of China claimed 25 million, World War 2 claimed 70 million souls and so on.

How can any one 'peoples' suffering across the world be singled out for special attention, when the magnitude of suffering across the world over history is often difficult to comprehend and justify as to why? Dave's and Paul's post were very poignant.

Would it be great if the young people attending these lessons were also enabled to hear the views of posters above?
That would be a fuller education wouldn't it?
Nick

Its the Woke Anarchists who need history lessons Nick.

But Anarchists never listen......