Coming To Terms With History

Most of us will have heard, by now, of the protests around statues of contentious historical figures - mostly those involved in slavery - here in the UK, and in countries such as the US.

History is not always comfortable. Much of it is brutal and bloody. Much of it involves people taking advantage of others. Sometimes it involves abhorrent institutional acts such as the slave trade, or the Holocaust.

History exists. To erase the record of the slave trade would be erasing the thousands upon thousands of people who suffered - who were bought and sold as property, despite the fact that they were people who had hopes and dreams and loves and lives. Their existence should not be denied - the record of that existence should be preserved.

How that record should be kept is something that we can, and should, discuss - though of course I suggest this through official channels, rather than through other acts of not-strictly-legal demolition.

People can and should be placed within their historical context - but that historical context needs to be full and honest. Because each of the slaves crammed onto those boats would also have had an opinion - and it wouldn't have been the same one as that discussed over tea in London drawing-rooms.

It's important to try to face, accept the horrors of, and come to terms with, even the most uncomfortable and terrible aspects of history, because what came before us has created the world in which we live.

The affects of American slavery and segregation led directly to an official system, and more than a handful of individuals within it, which often cares very little for the lives of Black people.

And, yes, Black Lives Matter.

Understanding these situations, through understanding the history, can help to change them - to start to unpick and change the flaws that 'what came before' created. And that's the most important thing today - changing things.

Because a system in which George Floyd's murder can take place with reckless and careless ease is one in need of change.

The most important thing about history is that it's about people. It's about all the lives and stories which came before us, yes, but also the lives and stories of those with us right now.

We're writing our own chapters of history right now - let's stop using blood as ink.