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Contrary to popular culture, the British really have taken the lead in human rights, since the Magna Carta. When we make knee-jerk reactions about history without acknowledging the historical records, we fall into the trap of alienating potential allies thru our nescient hubris. As a government, the British did not allow the transatlantic slave trade into Britain until 200 years after the Portuguese and Spanish engaged in trolling the West Coast of Africa.

Perhaps, England had been so denigrated by the Vikings that they didn't have a taste for the institution. But eventually the pendulum swung right and strong men with money usurped the laws, with oligarchs like the Trump types, joining in on the Ottoman trade, selling their white brethren to the Barbary Coast, and concomitantly to the Ottomans. Their economic muscle, meanwhile, allowed them to usher England into the trade as time ensued.

In 1619, contrary to popular knowledge, the Jamestown Virginia Company did not enslave Blacks, although enslavement of Indians emerged via normative influences of Western encounters with so-called non-christians in traditional societies. The Moors, Egyptians, Ethiopians, etc. were strong influences in the consciousness of the early modern era, and only gradually began losing their grip after the fall of the Moors in 1492 Eventually, Renaissance-era Eurocentric iconography pervaded the consciousness of the public and was replaced by imagery depicting Africa, and Africans, as the dark continent.

Interestingly, I foraged my information on the Ottoman slave trade, of Slavic nations, and Western Europe, and information on Grimaldi Man and Cheddar Man, Black early Europeans, from the modern-day British press. American media has done just the opposite, and focused its lens on mitigating everything positive about Blacks writ large.

So, today, the British Museum has the legitimate Siege of Lachish images of the Hebrews and Assyrians, Black folks, but do know there is conservative push back within the museum itself, which is the indicative of the push and pull within any domain of influence. There is, for example, a depiction of this iconic Minoan art, below, which has ironically added-in a Eurocentric skin tone despite the iconic primary source depiction, of dark skin endemic to the piece. To me, this is indicative of the internal pressures of progressives within the museum engaged with influences of conservatives, who would have preferred that the art piece represent a European-looking person.

So, rest assured if we as Black people gain the sway of controlling our imagery, there will still be those who will attempt to cast negative aspersions on the framing. Narratives that are told positive, as long as people think they are white, will be confronted with negative framing when in the hands of conservatives.


My iphone photo taken in August 2024, London, England. Free public use, as needed.