Quote:
Originally Posted by nomadking
So how many major non-white figures in UK history? The intent is to have teachings about non-white people who had a minor impact on UK history, therefore comparing it to the lack of white minor figures is valid.
The likes of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Isaac Newton don't have a place in UK history simply because they were white, but because of the major things they achieved.
Your(added later] examples are still not MAJOR figures.
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Your reading of history is elitist and completely inadequate.
Brunel never built a railway or a viaduct by himself. He designed and managed but there are thousands of individual stories of ordinary labourers upon whose shoulders these great endeavours were actually built. Sometimes they gave their lives for it.
If our history never achieves more than to list the names of people with ideas then those who toiled to bring those ideas to life are ignored and our understanding of what really makes our society tick is doomed to be incomplete. Arguing over who is a major or a minor figure is a pointless exercise. We are all individuals with our parts to play and our contributions to make, and these are the places where British BAME history is most often found.
While it is right that we correct the whitewashing of iconic black figures in our history, to focus on this is actually to fall into the trap of believing history is essentially all about iconic individuals. BAME communities in Britain will never win that battle because the reality is, most of the iconic individuals (where iconic is understood in terms of significant leadership in warfare, engineering, banking or whatever) in our history are white, for all sorts of reasons, not all of them good.
A well-rounded understanding of our history lies not the reciting of names and dates, but in attempts to understand how ordinary people actually put in the grunt work to build and maintain and grow Britain to the place it is today. If we achieve that, then people of all backgrounds should be properly represented.