Moans about "the British" are offensive and patronising

The anti-British moan I have just stumbled across is distasteful, though predictable, and mild by online standards. (Everyday casual conversation in progressive circles is much more extreme and abusive.) So you may wonder why I was saddened and a little shocked by the following: “The British have a lot to answer for.” “They don’t know their history.” “There is no recognition that the curriculum has to change.” 

I won’t name the writer because f riends assure me that this respected BAME figure is kind and generous, as well as thoughtful, intelligent and moderate. And because I am not looking for a fight. He came to this country from what would once have been called “an outpost of Empire”. Although he writes as if he were a foreign critic of  “the British”, he adopted British citizenship and is – rightly — recognised here as a highly-talented and successful artist in a number of fields. He has contributed a lot to this country and this country has been good to him.

What worries me is this: I am of part-German extraction. My grandfather came to this country, where he died decades ago. His family in Germany vanished so completely that we have been unable to trace his origins. Some relatives here said he was Jewish. Others claimed he was a Catholic Social Democrat. Either way, he was well out of the most appalling period of atrocity in German history, one which came to an end a mere 74 years ago. 

But supposing I were to write that the Germans – today’s Germans – have a lot to answer for. That they don’t  know their own history. That the high school curriculum stops in 1932 and start again in 1945. (It may have changed. It was certainly the case when I attended briefly a Gymnasium in Hesse many decades ago.) No one here would publish such offensive stuff.  If I offered such views (which are, I stress, not mine) in polite society, I would be shown the door. 

Now consider this. If I were to say that history shows that the slave trade worked because African tribes systematically captured members of other tribes and sold them to Arab slave traders, who in turn sold them to Brits and other Europeans, who shipped them across the Atlantic in foul condition, I would be labelled a racist and subjected to organised abuse. Even more so if I were to add that today’s Arabs and Africans “have a lot to answer for” and “don’t know their own history”. (Again, not my view. Unlike Hitler and Stalin, I don’t believe that the sins of the fathers should be visited upon the children.) If I held a post on a newspaper, in broadcasting or a university, I would probably lose it. I might well be prosecuted under race hate legislation.

I have two friends who took British citizenship. One is originally from Hungary. Her family escaped in 1956, after years of actively opposing first the Nazis and then the Soviets. The other is Jewish, born in Mandate Palestine. Both have done well here, one as a writer, the other as a translator. They are both fiercely loyal to their respective countries of origin, but also proud of this country. Both are actively interested, often critically, in British politics. Why not? They are British citizens. As British as those of us who were born here. They are free to say what they like. But neither of them would dream of writing patronisingly about “the British”, as if their fellow citizens were some rather obnoxious alien species. If only those preoccupied with ethnicity and colonialism would show the same good manners.