In recent years, America’s MAGA demographic has been obsessed with the 1619 Project, which originated as a New York Times series aimed a “reframing” American history with historically accurate information about slavery. The 1619 Project has been used as a tool within universities, which is also connected to teaching Critical Race Theory (also in universities). The 1619 Project and CRT were used as dog-whistle boogeymen by racists and Republicans, who told white suburban mothers that the New York Times was coming into their children’s kindergarten classes to teach them how to be Black Panthers. Or something, I find a lot of the racists’ arguments to be confusing and muddled. The GOP’s CRT fuss worked in the Virginia governor’s election last year, with a huge number of voters casting their ballots to… keep Toni Morrison’s books off the AP English syllabus. That’s how stupid it got in my state.

I bring up the 1619 Project and CRT because Prince Charles seemingly wants to do something like that in the UK. Only I don’t think he understands that tugging at all of the threads will make the whole kingdom fall apart. I saw how unhinged American racists got over the very idea that it’s worth teaching the real history of slavery in schools. What will happen when every British paper is spitting fire about the same issue?

The Prince of Wales wants slavery to be publicly acknowledged, taught in schools and given the same national level of importance as the Holocaust.

Charles, who spoke of his “personal sorrow” at the UK’s historical links with the slave trade during his visit to Rwanda last week, will campaign for greater public awareness of slavery, which has dogged the royal family’s recent overseas tours.

A senior royal source said the prince was talking to “world leaders and lots of different people” about slavery, which he will make a key focus. The source said: “He is patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and he notes that in the UK, we now know and learn at school all about the Holocaust, so it is something that is acknowledged and learnt at a national level. That is not true of the transatlantic slave trade, and maybe that is something that should be. So, just like the Holocaust Memorial Day, is there some way of doing that? Having a moment, having a way of remembering that?” The source added the prince was “not dictating education policy” but acknowledging “that it needs to happen”.

Charles is understood to be keen to continue “listening, acknowledging and learning” about the issue, and has been hearing from The World Reimagined, an art education initiative which aims to address how the slave trade is “untold, mistaught or misrepresented” in the UK. It is thought he is also keen to see greater emphasis on the legacy of the Windrush generation in schools.

[From The Times]

I mean… he’s right? The real history of the transatlantic slave trade should be taught in British schools. Britain’s role in the slave trade should be taught specifically, and it shouldn’t simply be limited to Africans. Britain’s colonialist history in India – and throughout Asia – should be examined, re-examined and taught in schools. But as I said, I can’t see the British papers allowing any of it to happen. The conservative, racist media in Britain will run the exact same play the American racists ran here in America. Also: does Charles only want the “distant” history of the slave trade to be taught and that’s it, or does he want Britain’s modern racial history to be taught as well? Because if the lesson ends with “and then Britain ended slavery, the end” then… that’s a choice too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.