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Half of Britons can’t name a Black British historical figure, survey finds
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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I'm no Briton and i just know a few bits here and there of British history, but isn't the UK a traditionally mostly white country ?
I'm guessing half of say, Norwegians, also can't name a black Norwegian historical figure either. I'm betting it's even more than that and they're the most immediate neighbors of the UK.
I'm not saying they're not important to be remembered, or that there weren't black people in Europe since the Roman times, here and there, but statistically speaking, black people were the overwhelming minority.
Norway didn’t colonize the West Indies or Africa (though they ran the Société du Madal for Portugal), thereby increasing the number of black Norwegians to include residents of entirely new majority black countries. There are a lot of black Brits.
Also, why Norway and not France (physically closer, comparable colonial history) or the Republic of Ireland (former colony, significant “shared history” during the colonial times, literally touching)?
You would get the same results in France or Ireland. And if you want to get into figure in former British colonies, you'd be talking half the world. Name a famous black person from pre-revolutionary America that more than half of British would know.
I very much doubt you would get the same result from France, given the very different historical attitudes towards black people in the two countries, as well as a higher number of black people whose stories are taught (due to the difference in attitudes).
Clearly, it’s impossible to do so, given the story we’re commenting under. I assume sally Hemings or (probably less likely) crispin attucks would be the figures they’d be most likely to name.
The more relevant aspect of the colonizing point was that Britain colonized Kenya (as an example) in the 1960s, not the US in the 1700s. They can’t name a single black Kenyan person from that time period?
Oh right yeah the colonial times. I guess when i was thinking about historical Britain i was thinking about celtic/roman/viking/medieval times. I tend to gloss over colonial times, i find that part of history not to be very appealing to me, but yeah, makes sense. Lots of black people because of the slave trade.
I picked east, i could've picked west, or south sure. No reason in particular.