It’s time Britain protected black history instead of censoring it

It’s time Britain protected black history instead of censoring it

This Black History Month, we need to do more than just celebrate Black achievements. We must actively protect black history and the spaces that teach it, writes Richard Sudan (Photo: Getty Images)

This Black History Month it is important that we not only celebrate and honor the achievements of black people in the UK, but also stand up against attacks on black history, academia and black representation.

Systematic efforts to erase our history from educational institutions and political discourse are evident.

Two recent troubling events, the axing of Professor Hakim Adi’s Black History course and Professor Kehinde Andrews’ Black Studies undergraduate program, underscore the urgent need to protect and value Black history and counter the alarming tide of repression.

Professor Hakim Adi’s MRes program in History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester was the first major course of its kind in the UK to train students, particularly those of African and Caribbean heritage, as historians.

Adi, a distinguished scholar, has spent decades studying the history of African and Caribbean communities. African and Caribbean People in Britain: A Historyit carefully documents the long presence of black people in Britain. This is our history and our history matters. Do not throw them away.

Despite this, Adi had a direction surprisingly cut In 2023, Adi himself was fired. The university says the rationale was financial, but that explanation is questionable.

as The University and College Union (UCU) has argued that it was an “attack on the black academy” that undermined not only Adi’s contributions but broader efforts to diversify the fields of history. In a country where only 1% of professors are black, rejecting a course that would allow black academics appears to be a deliberate attempt to advance black academia in the UK.

Similarly, Professor Kehinde Andrews, one of the UK’s leading voices on structural racism, recently saw his first undergraduate Black Studies program at Birmingham City University quietly axed. Black studies were the first of their kind in Europe.

Kehinde’s course offered a critical lens at the intersection of race, power, and history, challenging students to question the foundations and roots of the educational system.

However, like Adi’s program, it has become a target. What Professor Andrews has done since then is also worrying under investigation To use academic terms that are part of black theory.

Britain’s problem with black votes

Interestingly, this is not an isolated incident, but part of a long-standing pattern of programs criticizing racism or challenging the status quo being shut down, silenced and challenged. A case in point is the history of cultural studies at the University of Birmingham.

Under Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1970s, there was an active crackdown on cultural studies programs critical of the state, themes such as Thatcher’s ‘law and order’ mantra of the 1980s, and institutional power in general.

At the heart of this struggle was one of the founders of cultural studies, the late Professor Stuart Hall. “Thatcherism” itself is a the phrase is coined Hall, who predicted its growth in Birmingham.

In 2002, the new Department of Cultural Studies and Sociology at Birmingham was dissolved, despite campaigns to fight it.

Professor Andrews is also a product of this rich tradition, and the closure of the Andrews course and the public campaign against it represent a continuation of that troubling legacy and resistance.

This clear suppression of radical criticism of the state is not limited to education. Politicians like Kemi Badenoch have it publicly demoted The importance of slavery to Britain’s development, perpetuating a narrative that seeks to minimize black contributions, experiences and ultimately history.

In an article for the World Economic Forum, Badenoch claimed that slavery was not a major factor in the growth of British wealth – a claim that is contrary to historical evidence.

This type of historical revisionism is dangerous because it distorts the public’s understanding of Britain’s colonial and imperial past, reinforcing a sanitized version of history that erases the brutal realities of slavery and exploitation.

Additionally, we have witnessed disturbing efforts by political parties to marginalize black representation. numbers like labor last treatment Diane Abbotta longtime advocate for racial justice and Jovan Owusu-NepaulA candidate who was sidelined in Clacton in the recent general election shows attempts to exclude the black vote from the political arena.

These actions send a clear message that black contributions to both history and contemporary society are undervalued and under attack.

It is no coincidence that subjects that encourage students to question institutional authority are shut down alongside attempts to justify Britain’s colonial history and political landscape.

Black studies, cultural studies, and African history programs expose obvious and proven inequities in the educational system and society at large. They encourage students to think critically about race, class, gender, and power and to challenge dominant narratives that support the status quo.

Under the guise of financial viability, universities routinely shut down these programs, deeming them unpopular or unsustainable.

In fact, these closures are a reflection of the neoliberal values ​​that dominate higher education, where courses that do not directly serve capitalist interests are seen as mere waste.

But we must remember that these radical programs offer tools for understanding and challenging the deep inequalities that dominate society.

This Black History Month, we need to do more than just celebrate Black achievements. We must actively protect black history and the spaces in which it is taught. For example, education unions, teachers and scholars have demanded a radical approach to Palestinian solidarity. It is time to expand the focus of these movements to black academics and black history advocacy. Demands for universities to divest from Israel must be matched with calls to protect black academics and narratives.

Coalitions that resist the disappearance of black stories from our institutions must be our path forward and collective breakthrough. We must unite around a common commitment to anti-racism and anti-imperialism, connecting the struggle for black history to broader movements for social justice.

If pro-Palestinian solidarity is the anti-colonial struggle of our time, we must see it as the anti-racist struggle.

As many studies have shown, the rise of racism shows that this struggle is far from over. If we are to protect the achievements of the Black Lives Matter movement, we must act to ensure that future generations have access to a true and comprehensive understanding of history.

The fight to protect black history, our academics and historians, is a fight for a future where the enormous contributions of black people are recognized and celebrated, not erased and thrown away.

Richard Sudan is a journalist and author specializing in the fight against racism and has reported on various human rights issues around the world. His writings have been published by The Guardian, Independent, The Voice and others.

Follow him on Twitter: @richardsudan

Have questions or comments? Email us at: [email protected]

The views expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.



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