…The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there… L.P. Hartley, 1953
Hello from my London holiday! Do you and I have racism? You might reply, “Not-me!” I might reply, “Not exactly,” because certain justice warriors would say that every man, woman and child raised in North America has racism—regardless of their race, region or creed—breathed in with our culture. Maybe, but maybe it’s a matter of degree.
I remember cackling like a witch, as I climbed up the stairs in our duplex, holding loot on a silver plastic platter, loot gifted to me from the young Malaysian couple down below, as my housemate looked over the railing. Rejoicing, “Do you know what I like about me? That I’m not a racist. Look at all my stuff!”
My Black housemate exploded, “Of course you’re not a racist Sean! You’re living with a Black man!” To him, for me to have clicked up to that notch, to that degree of non prejudice, meant I was not a racist.
Call me a snob, but not a race-snob, as I boast: I had business inside the Bank of England, where real Britishers can’t get past the retired Gurkhas. After that, I went around the block, off Threadneedle Street, to the Bank of England Museum. My loot was a gold bar, filled with chocolate, and an official Museum velcro purse, now filled with pound coins for the laundrette.
It was two years ago, after the death of George Floyd, that I essayed about various anti-racism material in that museum. All gone now. That is, except for a silver spoon on display, with a notation that it was from a slave plantation. At one exhibit they noted Cecil Rhodes had believed in (racism or imperialism) and that he was, I think, proud of his fellows opening up the country. I will always cut Rhodes some slack, ever since Burnam, an American scout, went over to have further scouting adventures in Rhodesia saying it’s worth crossing an ocean to serve with a great man.
Today the governments and institutions of Britain are officially non racist—even though, in the past, in order to spread their flag across one quarter of the globe, they had surely rationalized their being “not nice” by using racism.
You know, like how today, if you and I want to discriminate against Jews or women, we have to invoke racist terms, and believe our own lies, calling them “ho’s” to excuse our behaviour—what? You say you’re too honest? So am I. Maybe I’m nice and kind too, but at the end of the day? Too honest.
Besides government and institutions, what about individuals? I’m thinking of my grandparent’s time, and the “free-thinkers,” as they were called: do-gooders who would flirt with socialism, be skeptical of the existence of God, and happily believe in eugenics. You know, like George Bernard Shaw and Eleanor Roosevelt, the president’s wife who ensured that groups of Blacks, “Eleanor’s troops,” were allowed to serve in combat in WWII. (Ground and air) Such people today would be the creative guys running the Tate Museum. The Tate for Modern Art is the second most visited tourist attraction in London. Meanwhile, I also enjoy the other one: the Tate Museum of British Art: Besides the classic oil paintings, the modern art on the upper floors has beauty to die for. It’s where I would spend my last day on earth.
From the Tate Britain: “Henry Tate started his sugar refining business in 1859, sometime after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in the 1830’s. However, the sugar industry from which he derived his wealth was founded on the labour of enslaved African people and their descendants in the Caribbean and South America. After abolition, the industry relied on other forms of forced labour in British other European colones until the 1910’s.”
I think that, since racism is still echoing in British culture, the Tate doesn’t want to ignore it. And while the statute of limitations protects modern day Britishers of various races and creeds, I sense the individual Tate artistic-types, unlike their Yankee counterparts that I read about, don’t believe in a US style “white guilt” or “reparations” after all these generations have gone by.
Continuing, after an omitted paragraph: We are working to address those legacies through research, interpretation and dialogue. You will find some of the connections explored in the labels in the gallery and the information on our website. You can read more about Tate history and the legacies of of slavery by visiting tate.org.uk/legacies-of-slavery
I know that history may bore some people. Nevertheless, since Britain’s prosperity today is partly owing to capital accumulated from the slave years, I do respect the Tate wanting to keep slave history alive, not incinerated down the memory hole.
I know that during my early boyhood, back when Australia still had a “whites only” immigration policy, in the US a big name textbook publishing company quietly printed two versions of school books: one for the North and one for the old South. I don’t know whether that still goes on. (Today Oz is as diverse as Vancouver) Isn’t progress nice? Sometimes it’s so slow you have to be my age to notice, but it does happen…
God save the king.
… …
… …
Sean Crawford
In a big Dreamliner,
Looking down at God’s favoured British Isles,
Including, on the southwest part, the Republic of Ireland,
February
2026
Footnotes:
~Of course there is more than way to build capital. I saw in my hotel room a TV show about another source of Britain’s capital: the sea trade. During the show a map would show the amount of London dockyard space increasing as trade grew.
~The term “capitalist” was, as far as I know, invented by Karl Marx during his years in the British Museum library where he formed his philosophy of marxism (communism). In all my years of visiting, I could only peek into the library once, as a group was going inside for a meeting. Now, at last, it is open as an exhibit, with the reading-and-writing tables all roped off, to be looked at with longing.
