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The British curriculum sanitises the history of slavery by isolating it as an aberration of evil. Slavery built the west. Acknowledging that is the first step to undoing its damage.

"The (optional, rather than required) teaching on transatlantic slavery freezes its horrors as a past phenomenon of more barbarous times. In doing so, it provides a framing that allows white liberals to fondly reminisce about Britain’s heroes of abolition. The same logic is at work when ‘modern day’ slavery is described as the legacy of the African holocaust. Instead of addressing the actual legacy of the system of slavery – the continued oppression and structural disadvantagement of black populations in the west and the disconnection caused between the diaspora and African continent – this framing permits white liberals to embrace the abolitionist spirit of the past. It allows them to fight the good fight against ‘human trafficking’, perpetrated by those supposedly (and conveniently) coming from the developing, less enlightened world. While this is surely more comfortable for white students, it misses out on several key aspects that must be included if the importance of transatlantic slavery is to be taught effectively.

The major way to reframe the teaching of transatlantic slavery is to stop seeing it as an isolated act of past terror. Transatlantic slavery was integral to a system of western imperialism that is still in existence today.

Teaching transatlantic slavery in this way would entail a re-examination of the key myths of the progressive and enlightened so-called ‘British values’ that underpin the national identity. It would mean having to acknowledge that what we currently have is built upon a horrific reality of genocide, slavery and colonialism; not just historically but also in the current articulations of western imperialism."

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