Historian David Starkey says slavery was not genocide because ‘so many damn blacks’ survived
David Starkey has caused outrage and is facing calls to resign for claiming that slavery was not genocide ‘otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks’.
The 75-year-old renowned historian criticised the Black Lives Matter movement as trying to delegitimise Britain and ‘the west in general’ and suggested that Britons ‘go on’ about slavery.
In the interview with Darren Grimes, the founder of the pro-Brexit campaign group BeLeave, Mr Starkey appeared to downplay slavery by saying it ‘was not the equivalent of the Holocaust’. He also argued that ‘the only reason that these young black protestors are here’ is because of slavery.
Speaking via video link from home, Mr Starkey said: ‘Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there? An awful lot of them survived.
‘Again, there’s no point in arguing against globalisation or western civilisation, they are all products of it, we are all products of it.’
The historian, who is known for his TV documentaries and books, goes on to talk about the British empire being the ‘first key stage of globalisation’ and ‘probably the most important moment in human history’.
‘And as for the idea that slavery is this kind of terrible disease that dare not speak its name, it only dare not speak its name, Darren, because we settled it nearly 200 years ago,’ he added.
‘We don’t normally go on about he fact that Roman Catholics once upon a time didn’t have the vote and weren’t allowed to have their own churches, because we had catholic emancipation and do you know what?
‘We had catholic emancipation at pretty much exactly the same time that we got rid of slavery in the 1830s – we don’t go on about that.’
When Mr Grimes questioned the historian on what he would say to anti-racism activists who ‘want to decolonise the curriculum’, Mr Starkey replied: ‘You cannot decolonise the curriculum because you, Black Lives Matter, are wholly and entirely a product of white colonisation.
‘You are not culturally black Africans. You would die in seconds if you were dumped back in black Africa because you wouldn’t know how to cope.
‘You’re a product yourselves of cultural and racial mix.’
He added: ‘What has happened of course is that the only reason that these young black protestors are here – isn’t it slavery?
‘It’s only because of the great African diaspora, the compulsory diaspora, because of slavery. What of course that brings you up to confronting is of course slavery was not the equivalent of the Holocaust.’
Mr Starkey’s comments come following weeks of anti-racism protests in the UK, the US and around the world following the death of George Floyd.
Mr Floyd, an unarmed black security guard, died after white police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25 in Minnesota.
The historian’s interview have caused fury, sparking a huge Twitter debate with many calling his comments ‘racist’.
One Twitter user called the conversation ‘utterly vile revolutionist racism’ and that there was ‘absolutely no use for “damn” in what is already a disgusting sentence’.
Another said: ‘David Starkey is cancelled. Racism always outs. If you’re feeling the urge to racist rn [sic] don’t. The world is changing’.
Former home secretary Sajid Javid also waded into the debate to brand Mr Starkey’s comments as racist.
Mr Javid tweeted: ‘We are the most successful multi-racial democracy in the world and have much to be proud of. But David Starkey’s racist comments (“so many damn blacks”) are a reminder of the appalling views that still exist.’
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