SWASHBUCKLING MYTHS
I am responding to David Starkey’s article “A perversion of Puritanism which aims to trash our history” (July/August).
Statues and monuments can only reflect the passion and whims of those that put them up. After that they should stand solely upon their own historical merit. If a broader awareness of the history of these figures indicates a more accurate and questionable merit, then surely their monumental legacy must be reviewed. I wonder if many of those who accuse others of revisionism are perhaps burdened by guilt of ignorance and fear of being wrong.
I, too, fear that voices are being marginalised as they don’t fit the “new criteria” — I am glad to read your point of view therefore. But your view is not counterbalanced here. As a white person I will always struggle to appreciate the life experience of being black. I believe empathy to be a powerful tool, the willingness to do so is vital.
It is hard to fully understand the ingrained frustration, hurt and terror that racism carries. But, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s awful death, it is understandable that anger consumes in such an immediate, widespread and pointed manner. Are we still too smugly privileged not to believe this?
Our curriculum should continue to
evolve and accurately reflect the history of our diversifying population. It is crucial that young Britons feel that history lessons tell their story truthfully and don’t pander to our heroic white swashbuckling myths.
It tells a great deal that in school I would have heard of the politicians who sought to abolish slavery, but never of the compromises made to plantation owners in order for this to happen.
Is it any wonder that many wish to reclaim these payments? Many monuments carry a jarring legacy of civil benevolence built on the ordeal of enslavement. How can a black parent ever explain such a homage to their child?
In a hundred years, long after we’ve gone, the UK will be a more diverse and multiracial nation. We owe to the generations that succeed us the conditions to build a country they can feel proud of. The alternative is separation, resentment and, ultimately, our collective failure. Edwin Green abingdon, oxfordshire