How can history help us to be a cohesive society?

Taking down statues is not erasing history or part of cancel culture. History is a story about the past that can told in different ways, depending on who is writing it and for what purpose. Events can be missed out, cut out or glossed over and some details can be forgotten completely. History is a giant jigsaw puzzle, by revisiting and remembering the whole story, we are not erasing history, or rewriting history, we are filling in the gaps and missing pieces, therefore gaining a more complete version of events. Raising awareness of past events and the abhorrent behaviour of some people, allows us to remember them in a more appropriate way, rather than celebrating them, allowing society to move forward cohesively.

After the Jimmy Saville revelations, commemorative rooms had names changed, plaques were taken down, buildings were renamed. Charities even closed. Yes this was in living memory and anything celebrating his life was removed but history won’t erase him and neither should it. Lessons need to be learned to protect those in the future. How and why was this enabled? Is one question that needs asking.

Should we forget the atrocities of people in the past because they are not in living memory? Perhaps these people were benevolent as well as committing atrocities, people are complex and not one-dimensional. However, just because one gives to charity does not mean atrocities should be forgotten.

The Atlantic slave trade atrocities, which includes physical and sexual abuse, as well as enslavement and separation of families, funded the infrastructure and development of the Britain we live in today. These atrocities were done to the ancestors of those living in Britain today. Moreover, racism increased out of a desire to keep the black community being viewed in a particular way, allowing the slave trade to continue and profits to be made.

Why would anyone in Britain today want to live in a street named after a slave ship or its owner? And yet they do. By changing the name of the street and putting the street name sign into a local museum, we are not erasing history. Far from it, we are improving our historical knowledge. Educating people about the Middle Passage and plantation life allows us to raise awareness that human trafficking continues; these days inside locked containers. Additionally, by raising awareness of our past we can acknowledge and understand why the Atlantic slave trade happened, this should allow us to move forward as a nation, cohesively, rather than disjointed.

Does this mean we are being woke? 

Well informed and up to date. Alert to racial or social discrimination or injustice. 

(Oxford English Dictionary) 

I should hope so.

We need to consider why being accused of being woke, is being peddled by some right-wing commentators as a negative force for society. Why so? What are their motives for using this term in a derogatory manner? Do they wish to intimidate and divide people? Create culture wars?

In the past, people have tried to manipulate how people think, they have burnt books, controlled reading material and spread propaganda, all to try and ensure people remain unaware of different points of view, especially around issues of racism.

The Internet makes information control difficult, so by trying to turn a positive force, such as being woke, into a negative term, making it something to be ridiculed, it creates a barrier between people and divides them. By telling people it’s shameful to be woke, it keeps people quiet. Well that’s presumably the hope the anti-wokers have when they weaponise such words. 

Let’s not erase history, less revisit it. Let’s fill in the gaps. Let’s learn the lessons from yesterday and apply them to today. Let’s move forward together using history to build a society that is alert to racial and social injustice in the hope we become more cohesive and less divided.