As often as possible after our meetings we’ll post a round up of any useful bits and pieces of information stemming from our discussion. This is intended as a record for us to refer back to and as a starting point for anyone interested in investigating the subjects covered and learning more.
We are currently reading: “Black and British” by David Olusoga.
Find out more about the problems the author faced with the book and TV coverage of his work here.
This week’s chapter delved into the abolitionist movement within the Americas and Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The discussion therefore ranged over both British and American racial issues, as this is a legacy of our country’s history that ties us together.
THINGS TO EXPLORE
Gradualism Vs immediatism concerning abolition, especially in regards to how history has been retold within the British education system. An explainer of gradualism within the abolition movement can be found here.
How British education seems to refocus on white male abolitionists as opposed to black, female or POC abolitionists.
– Radical Tea-Towel’s overview of the incomplete history of the Britsh abolition movement
– Black campaigner and writer Olaudah Equiano
– The Sons of Africa
– Black Figures of the British abolition
– Forgotten Female Figures of the abolition
Britain’s ability to overlook or remove its key figures who opposed the abolition of slavery from its history.
– George Hibbert
– Robert Milligan
British history overlooking colonial brutality and the handling of uprisings, as well as resistance from white British populations concerning slave forces demanding their freedom, as opposed to being given it.
– Jamaican Uprisings
– Image of supplicant slave
The heritage industry redesigning its image to include more of Britain’s problematic history, find out more with this here.
OpenLearn offers a free introduction course to the heritage industry, which has an authorised discourse, a canon, which often focuses on a white agenda.
We also discussed the ongoing American civil rights situation and the Black Lives Matter movement.
– Kimberly Latrice Jones’s powerful speech on the Black Lives Matter protests.
This led onto a segue discussion on some of the many ways black populations in America have felt systemic, inter-generational oppression from their governments. Need some examples?
– Lead poisoning in America can be explored with the “This Podcast Will Kill You” episode on the subject AND through “Lead Wars” by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner
– 13th: a documentary investigating America’s prison system and racial inequality.
And that wraps up this week’s discussion.
