A rather large bill......

This is from another review of the book ...

"But this book stresses from the beginning that giving reparations is not necessarily about financial compensation.

Primarily, it is about recognising the terrible wrong wrought by the transatlantic slave trade, and the importance of understanding its effects on how we live now. Henry and Ryder cover the different forms reparations could take, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and public apology. They also discuss setting up a Caribbean Community (Caricom) body to receive reparations. And while they don’t reach a conclusion on what reparation should look like, they insist on the case for it in principle. On one hand, they explain how much of the reality of racism today can be traced back to the economic and psychological consequences of the slave trade: chronic educational underachievement; an increased likelihood of falling foul of the criminal justice system; higher rates of psychosis. On the other, they set out how profits from the slave trade continue to make money today – for instance, by having helped make the UK a global financial centre."

As I haven't read it, I can't comment. Just saying that reviews can be biased.

I guess the answer is to read it.

I'll win ill wind

It's interesting, isn't it, that's man with a knighthood worth an estimated £7 million thinks that he and others who are descendants of slaves are due reparation.

It's an I'll win that blows nobody any good, because if Sir Lenny's ancestors had not been taken as slaves and suffered then their descendants came to Britain, where would he be now?

As his great-great-grandfather was a white slave owner, how much will he contribute to the pot?

How far into the past do we travel and who should get compensation?
Descendants of Scottish crofters? Irish people who suffered in the potato famine? Convicts deported to the Colonies for stealing a loaf of bread?

Where do we draw a line?

LovesBach Presumably the last paragraph was constructed by you.

I'm not sure where the statement came from. I haven't read the book either, but the statement I read is somewhat different.

keepingquiet

sunami

Magz57

Why do people think money will solve everything? Pretty much every country in the world was involved in slave trading one way or another - not just uk. Hindsight is 20-20 and yes it was deplorable but we cannot be expected to pay for the ignorance of past generations.

If we can't be expected to pay for the past, nor should we be singing patriotic songs and flying flags proclaiming our pride in British heritage. We can't claim pride for all which happened in the past.

We should be studying history objectively and accepting what happened. I have no doubt David Lammy and Lenny Henry have suffered racial discrimination at some point in their lives. Hopefully, there is less racism these days, but it doesn't negate the influence of discrimination. It must be galling for them (and other black people) when the contribution of their ancestors isn't recognised in the story of what the UK is now.

I am rather horrified by the dismissive if not downright crass comments being made here.

I haven't heard Lenny Henry's 'call' as OP puts it and will reserve my opinions for when the book is actually published and I can read it myself.

Meanwhile people need to think a little more about how offensive not to say small minded some of their comments are.

Not for one minute is any money going to be paid to anyone. However anyone who sees the landed aristocracy in their big houses and vast estates of land in this country cannot deny that most of this wealth came from the triangular trade system in which people were commodities of trade and bought and sold on open markets like cattle.

The compensation that was made, was only to the slave owners when the trade ended and the owners had to be compensated for their 'goods' and loss of profit.

Anyone who can't see the total moral bankruptcy of this situation must be made aware that there can be no justification for what took place in the name of profit, and the impact that had on the everyday lives of ordinary people in this country ever since...

You can read the statement without waiting for a book to be released - it was published yesterday on several sites. I didn't construct the text:

Sir Lenny Henry has called for the payment of slavery reparations to all black British people.
Writing in a new book titled The Big Payback, the comedian supports the case for the UK government to give £18 trillion in compensatory payments.
In the book, Sir Lenny writes: "All black British people... need reparations for slavery," adding that "we personally deserve money for the effects of slavery".

You seem to be dismissive of the efforts of the government of the day to have slaves released - may we know what your solution might have been? Every working person has contributed towards the payment of this huge debt - and it seems, as ever, there is no acknowledgement of this, only scorn.
We cannot change, or be responsible for, the actions of ancestors - and to suggest posters on here are dismissive, crass, and ignorant of the effects of slavery, or may even see a justification in the name of profit, is insulting and offensive.

that they have oppressed

Perhaps men ( including the wealthy Lenny Henry) should make reparations to all the women that have oppressed over the centuries, depriving them of basic human rights and using them for their own purposes.

keepingquiet You quoted my post. I hope you don't think it was dismissive and crass.

Lets all join in. What about us (half) Irish? We have been exploited by the English since Norman times.. Come to that the Normans are responsible for the subjection of women. Women's position in Anglo- Saxon society was almost equal to that of men. Let all us women demand compensation from the French. Let us all go round on a merry-go-riund etc etc.

sunami

Magz57

Why do people think money will solve everything? Pretty much every country in the world was involved in slave trading one way or another - not just uk. Hindsight is 20-20 and yes it was deplorable but we cannot be expected to pay for the ignorance of past generations.

If we can't be expected to pay for the past, nor should we be singing patriotic songs and flying flags proclaiming our pride in British heritage. We can't claim pride for all which happened in the past.

We should be studying history objectively and accepting what happened. I have no doubt David Lammy and Lenny Henry have suffered racial discrimination at some point in their lives. Hopefully, there is less racism these days, but it doesn't negate the influence of discrimination. It must be galling for them (and other black people) when the contribution of their ancestors isn't recognised in the story of what the UK is now.

I am rather horrified by the dismissive if not downright crass comments being made here.

I haven't heard Lenny Henry's 'call' as OP puts it and will reserve my opinions for when the book is actually published and I can read it myself.

Meanwhile people need to think a little more about how offensive not to say small minded some of their comments are.

Not for one minute is any money going to be paid to anyone. However anyone who sees the landed aristocracy in their big houses and vast estates of land in this country cannot deny that most of this wealth came from the triangular trade system in which people were commodities of trade and bought and sold on open markets like cattle.

The compensation that was made, was only to the slave owners when the trade ended and the owners had to be compensated for their 'goods' and loss of profit.

Anyone who can't see the total moral bankruptcy of this situation must be made aware that there can be no justification for what took place in the name of profit, and the impact that had on the everyday lives of ordinary people in this country ever since...

Magz57

Why do people think money will solve everything? Pretty much every country in the world was involved in slave trading one way or another - not just uk. Hindsight is 20-20 and yes it was deplorable but we cannot be expected to pay for the ignorance of past generations.

If we can't be expected to pay for the past, nor should we be singing patriotic songs and flying flags proclaiming our pride in British heritage. We can't claim pride for all which happened in the past.

We should be studying history objectively and accepting what happened. I have no doubt David Lammy and Lenny Henry have suffered racial discrimination at some point in their lives. Hopefully, there is less racism these days, but it doesn't negate the influence of discrimination. It must be galling for them (and other black people) when the contribution of their ancestors isn't recognised in the story of what the UK is now.

Good point Allira though I still feel it to be imposible to simply dismiss Henry’s concerns about the legacy on black British people now. We can be thankful the racism Henry grew up with is less acceptable now but we’ve a way to go

Slavery was shocking and Britain was at the forefront of the abolition of slavery.

However, I hope we have moved on from those times in that the British do not enslave people now although others do - and in this country too.

David Lammy and Sir Lenny Henry are examples of just how far we have moved on from those days.

grannygranby

What about the impoverished working class in slums during the height of the empire ? You know the kids with no clothes or shoes in Victorian London.. how about class reparations? On the streets where they died freezing or in the workhouse or shipped off to the colonies as cheap labour. Canada still hasn’t made reparations for them. Were they any better off?

I’ve referenced my poverty stricken 18 and 19 century agricultural or mill/mine working ancestors. In the mid 19 century life expectancy for a Manchester mill worker was mid 30s, potentially 25. Some historical sites put it as low as 17. read up on Angel Meadows and weep

Does thst compare with being enslaved? I don’t think so, they were awful but my ancestors had a tiny bit of choice. Starve or work in conditions that might kill yiu. Slaves we’re without any choices

I’ve said I disagree with financial reparation, the time has passed. But recognition of the psychological and social legacy of slavery must be acknowledged

LH is off his trolley suggesting that.

Why do people think money will solve everything? Pretty much every country in the world was involved in slave trading one way or another - not just uk. Hindsight is 20-20 and yes it was deplorable but we cannot be expected to pay for the ignorance of past generations.

Mt61

Was it him who called us white saviours?
I now don’t watch, or donate to comic relief. Really annoyed at that statement.

It was David Lammy.

Although Lenny Henry agreed, said a film of Stacey Dooley at a clinic in Africa was perpetuating unhelpful stereotypes and "The world does not need any more white saviours," he added, saying the picture evoked "a colonial image of a white, beautiful heroine holding a black child, with no agency, no parents in sight"

Was it him who called us white saviours?
I now don’t watch, or donate to comic relief. Really annoyed at that statement.

Have we not apologised & paid our dues?

I agree with Windmill -we were once enslaved by the Roman Empire .
Are we getting any compensation ?
I liked and admired Lenny Henry .
I don't anymore .
It seems to me that he's benefitted from being a respected Sir and now he's sticking two fingers up at the Establishment .

Complete nonsense, publicity seeking by Lenny Henry. This country at the moment is failing to provide so many necessities to so many people because of lack of funds no way can we afford to pay a sum like this. I wonder how many descendants of slaves actually feel this should be a priority.

I have a family connection to a Caribbean island. I don't know what the financial situation was at independence in the 1960s, whether or not Britain made any sort of financial settlement before handing over, but I do know that I have visited it twice and I don't think it's thriving.

I can't help wondering if it was just abandoned when it became independent and some financial help would be 'useful'.

That's really what I think about in terms of 'reparations'. Not individual payouts, but support for individual countries.

This thread did inspire me to do some work on my long neglected family tree and I found lots of information that hasn't been available in the past...

What about the impoverished working class in slums during the height of the empire ? You know the kids with no clothes or shoes in Victorian London.. how about class reparations? On the streets where they died freezing or in the workhouse or shipped off to the colonies as cheap labour. Canada still hasn’t made reparations for them. Were they any better off?

I’ve often compared the lives of my ancestors who were agricultural workers in the south east, then mill / mine workers in the north with slaves. The biggest difference was my ancestors could, and did, leave.
In what way do black people benefit from positive discrimination?
I agree we should stop moaning. We need to acknowledge our histories, teach it properly and stop denying that slavery leaves a legacy

Oh for goodness sake I'm so fed up with all of this stuff. I'm half Irish and would like to see some compensation for the potato famine, which was partly caused by British export policy. My Belgian grandmother (other half) was a refugee, hiding in the woods while the Germans burnt her home and hunted her and my two little aunts, aged 1 and 3 - compensation please, it's certainly affected MY ancestral memory! Sorry, this is a forbidden thing to say (although I don't believe it should be) black people need to get over themselves and stop making capital out of the past. So many people were mistreated in the past. In the Industrial Revolution factory workers in this country were tantamount to slaves. Now, in some respects, black people benefit from positive discrimination. We should all stop moaning and be nice to each other.