‘Woke History lesson’: forget the Armada – Admiral Drake is a baddie and must be cancelled
There was one article today, in one paper, which made me furious. Apparently this wasn’t worthy of a raised eyebrow elsewhere because the rest of our MSM seem to think this isn’t worthy of reporting: we’ve apparently become inured to it. Frankly, I did the virtual equivalent of throwing the morning papers against the wall and stopped reading the lot. It’s not as if I missed much …
That article is about the ‘demand’ by students of Goldsmith University, London (no, me neither, but here’s their website) that the statues of Drake and Nelson be removed from the front of the building because: “Slavery!”. Well, they make the students feel ‘uncomfortable’ … Here’s the DT’s take on it (my emphasis):
“Goldsmiths University is considering removing “troubling” statues of Sir Francis Drake and Lord Nelson following student complaints. The south London university has launched a public consultation examining whether the 115-year-old monuments should be permanently removed from one of their buildings. A statue of the 17th-century admiral Robert Blake, who served as a naval commander under Oliver Cromwell, may also be removed along with an anonymous naval figure. Their removal has been demanded by the student group Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action, who occupied the town hall over the issue for 137 days in 2019.” (paywalled link)
Crikey – that was two years ago! The university has now opened a public consultation of the people of Deptford where this building stands. It remains to be seen if the result of that consultation will be adhered to – see below! It’s galling though that the DT doesn’t permit comments on that report – still too hot a potato, is it?
Then there are the ‘reasons’ why Drake and Nelson must be removed. It’s hair-raising that the ‘authorities’, at that university and elsewhere, are clearly incapable of fact-checking, wasting their time and resources based on spurious allegations which would be thrown out in a court of law. Nelson first:
“The “heroic status” of Lord Nelson, long held to be one of England’s greatest national heroes, was under review by the National Maritime Museum because of “aspects of slavery relating to the Royal Navy”.Writing aboard the HMS Victory, just four months before his death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the admiral is said to have penned a letter to a slave owner in the West Indies voicing his opposition to William Wilberforce. However, the legitimacy of the letter has been questioned by scholars.” (paywalled link)
Terrible, isn’t it! A letter was written! Off with his statue! He only ‘was held to be a hero’ anyway and ain’t no ‘hero’ for the Woke. Goldsmith’s students were just following the Woke mainstream. Officials and curators everywhere in the UK have already caved in, see e.g. this in regard to Drake:
“Earlier this month, councillors in his home town of Tavistock, Devon revealed that a new information panel highlighting his “horrific slave trading actions” will adorn a 10ft-high bronze statue of the seafarer. This is despite 89 residents objecting to the council’s proposals, with only one letter of support.” (paywalled link)
A familiar story: one ‘offended’ outnumbers all others who aren’t! Let’s just note in passing how easily democratic principles are discarded when it’s about Woke demands. There’s more:
“Last October, an exhibition at The Box Museum in Plymouth showcasing a silver gilt cup gifted to him by Queen Elizabeth I featured an explanatory note saying Drake’s voyages “marked the foundation of England’s slave trade”.” (paywalled link)
Let’s overlook the insignificant fact that English people had been taken and sold as slaves by ‘diverse’ slave traders from ‘diverse’ cultures well before Drake allegedly ‘founded Elngalnd’s slave trade’! Details, facts don’t matter, it’s about Woke ‘feelz’.
These students will stream into the public service where they’ll find many others who think like they do. There’s a furious article in ‘spiked online’ where Fraser Myers writes about ‘Our NHS’ – the NHS which needs more money because of covid and everything. However, the NHS is now recruiting … ‘diversity managers’:
[…] “screenshots of job adverts for equality, diversity and inclusion managers in the NHS went viral this week. Some of these diversity roles pay over £75,000 per year – a far healthier salary than junior doctors or most nurses are taking home.” (link)
A-maa-zing, innit! Who needs nurses or even doctors when ‘diversity’ must be managed properly. And then Myers points out some inconvenient facts about ‘diversity’ in the NHS:
“The facts are plain: around one in five of the NHS’s workforce is BAME (Black Asian and Minority Ethnic). A whopping 30 per cent of NHS medical staff are Asian – compared to just 50 per cent of medical staff who are white. Outside the diverse NHS, in pale old Blighty, 86 per cent of the population is white, 14 per cent is BAME, and just 7.5 per cent is Asian. In other words, the NHS is far more diverse than the nation whose health it is responsible for.” (link)
Well, clearly this huge ‘diverse’ workforce must be properly managed, correct? Myers lists other institutions – our beloved BBC right at the top – where ‘diversity’ has become over-representation of ‘diverse’ communities, and concludes:
“Proponents of ‘diversity’ say that institutions that serve Britain should reflect Britain in all its diversity. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that this diversity drive has no connection to the real world. It is yet another expression of the woke cultural revolution engulfing our institutions and re-racialising public life.” (link)
Just so! I recall such ‘diversity managers’, then in the guise of ‘equality managers’, were already recruited about ten years ago. Are they not working any longer and need replacing? Shouldn’t we be told?
But there are always unintended consequences. Woke and the wokerati, now having clearly overrun our institutions, should take a look at the huge elephant in the corner, an elephant which will grow even further once we’ve taken in those 20,000 Afghan refugees.
How could the wokerati argue against future demands based on sharia law? What will the vociferous transgenderists have to say when they’re told their ‘cause’ is offensive to muslims on religious grounds, that they must shut up immediately, their public funding withdrawn? What about BAME doctors refusing to treat those people? After all, there are already voices raised in the public discourse about refusing treatment to non-jabbed people …
The demands to topple statues of Drake and Nelson, based on wilful misinterpretation of historic facs or on a spurious letter, are proof that Woke is not just about ‘diversity’, it’s about re-writing our history and about destroying institutions such as the Royal Navy which has done more to stop the slave trade than any other institution.
Moreover, Woke is about the dumbing down of all of us. Why learn in schools, why study at universities when any group with an agenda can learn from Woke and demand that their demands now have priority? On what reason could the wokerati defend their wokeness against the religious feelings of an ever growing ‘minority group’? Are they not also ‘diverse’? Will our diverse institutions stand with Woke or cave in to that other group? They’ve shown already that caving in is their preferred mode of action.
I’ve not mentioned one group, the one which is still in the majority: white British ‘natives’. Will that group stay cowed, quiet and submissive – or will they stand up and defend our history, our nation, our institutions? Time is running out.
KBO!
Photo by Internet Archive Book Images
So this is the product of a University EDUCATION?
Or is ir more likely that the “higher” you go in today’s “educayshonal” system the more you are exposed to wokish BRAINWASHING?
The places that voted most heavily to Remain, after London, were, alas, Oxford and Cambridge. Colleges there have received heavy subsidies from Brussels.
I have seen the fall in intellectual standards in a circular I received from Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor telling us of the need to fight against “anti-blackness and systemic racism”. I replied saying that in my day (mid-sixties) we campaigned against the real systemic racism of the apartheid laws, if one policeman (who happens to be white) kills one suspect (happens to be black) and is then prosecuted and convicted to 22 years, this surely is NOT systemic racism.
This conversion of our institutions of “higher education” into centres for woke propaganda and brainwashing would explain why “REMAINERS have gloated over the release of a study that claimed a more highly educated public would not have voted for Brexit.”, see
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1488567/Brexit-live-EU-latest-news-remain-higher-education-study-Lord-David-Frost-Maros-sefcovic
Those who left the education system at an earlier age were less subject to the brainwashing process.
On the removal of historic artefacts “tainted” by slavery. At this rate someone is going to point out that “the US Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were drafted by slave.owners. So they must be TRASHED! ” Since these documents and the principles they embody are what holds the USA together, this means destroying the USA,
But then perhaps this is the object of the whole exercise.
Once America is out of the picture, there will be a world power vacuum. Who will step forward to fill it? The current contenders will all make us regret the passing of Uncle Sam.
When I first started campaigning I invariably found the most difficult people to get through to were were “well educated” middle class people with good professional jobs. Politically they seemed to me to be the most obtuse.
Time for the US to remove statues of George Washington, Thos Jefferson and Abe Lincoln, who it seems all kept slaves. Also we should be claiming reparations from Romans, Vikings and Normans for invading and enslaving our ancestors.
These students should be whipped.
Says who?
Well done Viv.
Wokes? Deport the lot of them.
When is the Revolution? I’m ready to join it.
Indeed Pauline. Maybe the wokes would be at home in Afghanistan or perhaps we could persuade them of that and even provide subsidised travel.
Much of wokism is simply racism against native white Brits. So the wokes are guilty of racism on a much greater level than the average white Brit.
So our history must be erased must it ? This is what Blair tried to do. Relegating History to the realms of Arts and Crafts in its importance. His sticky fingers spread far and wide. He is a dangerous creature and always reminds me of the Hugh Laurie character in The Night Manager. If only he would meet the same end. Enough already.
All statues and street names to Nelson Mandela, well-known ANC convicted terrorist should be “blacked out”. Also all inscriptions talking about so-called “links” to slavery of British heroes should be erased.
Whether or not this site will make a difference who knows, but it is a start, and on an individual level, if nothing else, it provides much needed gulps of fresh air and narrative rebuttals in the current stifling PC climate.
https://historyreclaimed.co.uk
One example:
https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/how-racist-was-the-british-empire/
Yes Phil. I’ve just looked. Found it rather heavy going but the site could do good work rebutting particular instances.
Isn’t that what Academia is supposed to be good at?
A certain BJ studied Classics at Oxford !!
He did. So here he is:
perfectly placed to take decisions on Covid, based on ‘the science’ – or the parody of science that the antithetically named SAGE dish up to him – without an iota of knowledge with which to challenge them;
perfectly placed to take decisions on the ‘climate emergency’ – or the parody that the self-appointed save-the-planet/ Green chancers/ Resetters dish up to him – without an iota of practical engineering (or scientific grounding again) with which to challenge them.
It was said of his tenure as London mayor, that he did not need to know detailed stuff because he had the knack of appointing just the right people who did. Um? Let’s see. How’s that working out now?
P**s poor, I’d say Phil.
Unless of course, he is working to the agenda of a higher authority.
Interesting read Viv – thanks. Wokeness is not going away anytime soon – that is for certain. It is not just historical figures that are being toppled it is claiming the scalps of senior company executives. Here is manna from heaven for the unions. Wokeism is a tool that is refreshing the activism, power and extremism of unions in not only the public sector but the private sector too. Scalps of senior executives are already being taken and it doesn’t take long for the professional and managerial classes to fall into line to protect their careers.
You have to hand to the Left they are brilliant at re-inventing themselves to further their toxic agenda.