Over 150 years in America. You can pay all the reparation for historical slavery related wrongs, real or imaginary, you want. This is because forgetting slavery means forgetting its victims. If you are wracked with guilt, ashamed of your forebears, do it! To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about the Olympics coming to London, but the atmosphere across the capital was genuinely wonderful . It wasnt always so & it may not be in the future. The historian tells Michael Segalov about getting up early, reading George Orwell, taking his dog George for a walk, playing his guitar He writes to inflame white guilt, so that you will ACCEPT destruction of your culture. Then a young teenager, he was driven out of his council home, together with his grandmother, mother, two sisters and younger brother, by a sustained campaign of nightly stoning of their windows. Make sure it doesnt happen in the least costly way. "They look to history not just for inspiration and comfort, not just for heroes and for glorious chapters; they look for history expecting to find challenging stories, painful stories, dark truths, villains as well as heroes. Hey, we do not even have to go that far. And any reparations should be paid 50% by the African states for the areas which sold the slaves and pocketed the proceeds. Definitely didnt die out with the Romans. Support 100 years of independent journalism. What do you think their stongest argument is? The rest apart from Ireland (17, partly due to influence of aforementioned Patrick) set it younger. We do not know enough to be sure. I think a case could be made. At the moment it seems to regarded as a good thing. Get back to us when your sin/privilege is expunged. It has been reissued by publishing house Hodder and Prof Olusoga has written the foreword. The strongest argument I can see for reparations is not that white people bear some kind of ancestral blame. Writing in english is cultural appropriation so STFU. MyBurningEars August 30, 2020 at 3:31 pm Deliberately shipping that many people that far in order to participate in a newly-created society whose economic system was designed, pretty much from the ground up, around slave labour?, True that unlike certain other examples of slavery, you werent likely to be killed as part of a religious sacrifice or as part of your owners funeral., But there have been other societies with slavery where slaves had more autonomy and a greater chance of buying their freedom.. Dont know if I would rule it out entirely because the demographics are different but it might need a change in the voting dynamics. Olusoga is of half Nigerian descent. True that unlike certain other examples of slavery, you werent likely to be killed as part of a religious sacrifice or as part of your owners funeral. But Ill tell you what, slavery and human sacrifice, still awful. at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too.. While I dont think they persuaded anyone, they did shift perspectives a bit. Or anything to do with slavery. Why are these characterizations needed? "So when black history was missing - the history of empire, the history of slavery - was missing from my history lessons, I didn't have a place to go to discover those missing chapters. Nevertheless, we live in a society that generally regards slavery as an absolute and eternal wrong, and a grave one at that, yet which has historically (at least certain people and places, and including the state itself) benefited from imposing slavery on others.. Surely the US has already spent much more than that on black Americans. How could Britain, a civilised and Christian nation, indulge in rape, torture, killing and the forced labour of Africans over two centuries? West Indians fought with the Allies more than a hundred were decorated. But any planter who deliberately starved his slaves to death would quickly go bust. The strongest case I can see against reparations is not fundamentally a legal one but perhaps one degree abstracted the law if we can litigate that, we can litigate a heck of a lot of stuff from centuries past, tie our legal systems up in knots with no obvious limits in sight. They may not be happy about Dresden or Hiroshima but their lives are much better. If more African-Americans started to vote Republican and the Democrats felt they needed something radical to boost their offer, and had enough support from liberal whites and other groups to risk further losses among blue-collar whites, for example. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. So wherever the wealth came from, it wasnt just slavery (or even mainly), Olusogas an alright presenter but a class A race hustler, Edward Lud August 30, 2020 at 9:12 am 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.. Some other buyer would have taken them if they werent shipped out, and Western (or Arab) traders were just changing the ownership and location, the sins of the slave-raiders being theirs alone to bear. MBE, do not entertain these people, not for one second. It is a political campaign, not a contribution to academic history. Sloane witnessed and later became part of a system ruled by terror. A fifty quid note in the hand of the first black bloke you encounter. I know there are posters on here who see stepping into their opponents perspective as a dangerous and pointless endeavour that gives undue worth to a viewpoint they despise, but purely as a mental exercise theres usually something to be said for examining your opponents strongest argument instead of their weakest. Youre right, MBE. Like I said before, tolerance is in the gift of the powerful. It could have ended earlier, but the planter interests in parliament defeated William Wilberforces attempts. You know, entirely ignoring lifetime effects? So he calls himself a Geordie. The Westman Islands of Iceland have an interesting history in terms of European slavery a major rebellion of presumably mostly Irish (Westmen) slaves was put down there in the typically brutal Scandinavian manner, hence the name, but in the 1600s the local inhabitants were themselves enslaved by Barbary pirates and taken to Algiers, from where a few were ransomed back and one wrote about the experience. This is a moral argument. Jamaicans and Nigerians used to hate each other. Everyone was. Grew up in Quedlinburg. The Russians do not have these problems because they are not ashamed. Ill disparage them. "The small minority whose history had been airbrushed out of the national story recovered that history with the help of their allies and then broadcast it, spread it into our national conversation and they did that within the space of half a century. They have a game plan & youre falling for it. Like I said, as a mental exercise, if I do my best good faith effort to imagine an argument for reparations, I reckon it would concern harms committed by the state (which unlike the slave traders and owners, is still about today) and an argument that it breached some alleged fundamental/universal doctrine of law so that even the states efforts to put the slave industry on a legal footing were null and void. Check out the trailer for Peter Pan & Wendy, an upcoming live-action movie directed by David Lowery. Quite possibly slave-raiding Gaels before that. Im not even saying thats a convincing argument, it has some very serious weak points, just that I reckon its a stronger one than a general appeal about current inequality. Country Star Kacey Musgraves: Voting for Trump Is an Act of Violence. David Olusoga's Family David Olusoga, age 49 was born to a Nigerian father and a British mother. The point about slave descendants in Georgia being better off than descendants of slave sellers from West Africa is reasonably strong (though look back in everyones ancestry and youre likely to find, far back enough, a mix of slaves, owners and probably traders too). "The phenomena of which he is iconic is one that we have written out, edited out of our nation. 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. I assume he is not very bright and Race Hustling is very lucrative. Yet theyre so many centuries and generations removed from the crime, everybody involved with the decision-making is long-dead and while the responsible state still exists, in practice compensation comes from taxes paid by citizens who had no part in it all. at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too. Of course if a rule was instituted that only people with white skins had to pay taxes, it might happen. The historian and producer said he wanted to. Read about our approach to external linking. But it is Olusoga who keeps insisting that its the Brits who are uniquely responsible.. Olusoga was born in Lagos to a White mother and a Nigerian father who, I hate to say nautrally, did a runner. I know there are posters on here who see stepping into their opponents perspective as a dangerous and pointless endeavour that gives undue worth to a viewpoint they despise, but purely as a mental exercise theres usually something to be said for examining your opponents strongest argument instead of their weakest. Used to be on a long-dead and much missed forum where the topics of debate ranged far wider than they do here (as did the viewpoints I think it would be useful if us right-wing brexity mob didnt chase off the sensible non-right-wing non-brexity types so much). Black and British: A Forgotten History addresses one of the greatest silences in British historiography. Tull played professional football for Northampton but instead of signing up for Glasgow Rangers, he enlisted. Though I dont know where wed get $12 trillion in Confederate currency. Giles Terera, the Olivier award-winning British performer who starred in the popular theatre production Hamilton, has . As Black British History Month draws to a close, TV historian Prof David Olusoga looks at the impact it's had - and how young people are taking it on. many African tribes kept slaves. One in which enslaved people suffered and even died from malnutrition, as the economics of the slave trade meant that it was cheaper, at times, to starve people and then replace them than it was to provide them with food. . (As the first person to mention the Sokoto Caliphate ahh, forget it.). If their ancestors had remained in Africa would they be better off than they are now? . I can then give him the details of other descendants, he can apologise to and compensate. Under English law, damages are assessed as being that amount needed to restore them to the position they would have been, had the event claimed against not occurred. Those aged 11-14 have to be taught about the British Empire between 1745-1901, however the slave trade is one of nine examples given by the Department of Education on what can be taught. The details of difference are fairly minor. Deliberately shipping that many people that far in order to participate in a newly-created society whose economic system was designed, pretty much from the ground up, around slave labour? One of the reasons why the American and Caribbean experiences were very different. Get back to us when youve developed your historicalguiltometer. December 2020. In fact he is a biased political campaigner working to attack and do as much damage to Britain as he can. Just how much should Olusoga receive? Although the bottom line is that no Black person remembers slavery. I cant see this one surviving people being expected to dig into their pockets for a few trillion. TV presenter David Olusoga has told the Edinburgh TV Festival his career had sometimes left him feeling "crushed, isolated," and "disempowered". The argument isnt whether historical slavery was right or wrong or who should accept responsibility for it. Anglo-Saxons had slaves. Whoever has the upper-hand in power political, cultural, economic, military or whatever other form is decisive at that moment. Vikings took slaves, including exporting Anglo-Saxons (you must have heard the quote Non Angli, sed Angeli about the English slaves being sold in Italy? Very often shaped by the political, technological and economic forces of the times if the Western way of life had remained utterly dependent on Roman-style slavery, Im not sure wed ever have abolished it even amongst our own inhabitants. This year, return to Neverland. White people will take it. The evidence of this is that seasoned slaves, those exposed to the environment, sold for up to 50% more than new ones. 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