Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Proposals to strip councils of absolute power in street renaming
Street artist/graffiitist is not in favour (image via @vivyouvell).
Double-checking some of my historical research to meet a publication deadline, I happened across a paper by Policy Exchange contributor, British-Ethiopian, Zewditu Gebreyohanes.
Protecting local heritage: How to bring democracy to the renaming of local streets (attached below) considers how streeet naming is currently imposed on neighbourhoods in what is very often a heavy-handed top-down process. Haringey's Black Boy Lane incident is considered. She concludes with some proposed amendments to legislation.
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Protecting-local-heritage-21.pdf, 3.3 MB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Pat on
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Not when opinion is presented as fact. I don't believe that the origin of the street name has been fully established, yet the author only presented the non-racist theory preceeding the paragraph with "In reality". As I understand it, historical documents held at the Bruce Castle Park Museum and Archives link the street name to a pub, which may have been named in relation to slavery. This theory was excluded from the section of the report published in the comments, and is a glaring omission. The author is a member of a group that is trying to take over the National Trust to prevent the charity from educating about the UK's historical involvement in slavery
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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But you have to read it first to establish that, right, as you and I clearly have done.
With regards to the origin of the name, yes that's about right. I published this piece about Blackboy name with significant input from Bruce Castle team, when the whole issue pf the name was just about to emerge.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon Farcas on
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If right thinking people are trying to reclaim the National Trust then I do hope they succeed.
I'm a bit sick of this nonsense about the UK being somehow uniquely responsible for slavery. Everyone has been at it for centuries and many still are. Britain did more than anyone to stop slavery, particularly the trans Atlantic trade. Why is there never any mention of other slavery? Of the east europeans (ie. The Slavs from which the word slave is derived), of the Arabic slave traders, of the Barbary slavers, of the Ottomans, or of the Africans themselves who captured and sold slaves and who are sometimes still at it today?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I suppose it’s because we live in the U.K. and not an of the other parts of the world you mention. Just because someone else did the same wrong doesn’t make it right.
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Michael — I certainly don’t always agree with Gordon F and yes, of course, it’s seen through UK eyes. But isn’t there a case to be made that history is cumulative and many bad things were done by many nations to many people on the way to where we are today? The Romans and Greeks had slaves; north African slavers were notorious in the 17th century; the Irish might have something to say about absentee English landlords and the Famine, and the Scots about the Highland Clearances, the Armenians about the Turks, all of which caused trauma, death and displacement. The US and UK choose to highlight one utterly deplorable period of history, but there are many other equally reprehensible actions that could also be considered. Yes, US/UK/(African) slavery was appalling and other countries’ actions don’t make it right, but how does anyone decide which bits of the bigger picture should be highlighted and which ignored?
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I’m afraid I don’t understand. If we did something wrong in this country we decide what to do about it. Why should that be influenced by decisions elsewhere about their own past? “Well other people did awful things too” is neither here nor there - we are accountable for what our own country did
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I think the UK is due a whopping great big thank you for its contributions to the modern world. Instead of making amends or paying 'reparations' we should be receiving dividends for our contributions to science, medicine, commerce, engineering, law and justice, sports, politics, human rights and above all our willingness over centuries to commit our armed forces to challenge tyranny and injustice around the world. We didn't get it right every time but we've done more than any other country.
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Our 'National Story' has a rightful place in our thinking, but (and it's a bif but) we all need to be careful to understand what we're dealing with. Whilst based on realities, much of it is myth and little of it is balanced. It almost universally fails to achieve the appropriate balance with the less appealing side of our history. Exact equations aren't probably a useful tool here, but neither are statements which stray into this territory.
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Perhaps recognition to those countries where we took minerals, crops, oil and human beings to aid our own wealth and progress then?
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Did it not aid their progress as well? What were things like in those countries before we became involved?
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In considering the “article” it’s probably worth bearing in mind that Policy Exchange is a right-wing pressure group, co-founded by Michael Gove and with the arch-Brexiteer David Frost as a leading member, that is often used by the government as cover for floating libertarian or ultra free-market policies, It supports, for instance, free schools, is against what it calls “lawfare” and currently runs a project seeking to interfere with and curb the judiciary because “unelected judges” too often uphold the law and tell the government they can’t do things. Yes, there are a multiplicity of political views, but any reading of Policy Exchange documents might perhaps need to take into account their specific stance.
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