(Letter to Bristol Evening Post, published 1st April)

Dear Sir,

I have attended the last two Bristol Legacy Commission meetings in order to gain a better understanding of the approach the Council is taking to improved community cohesion. I have also followed the correspondence in the EP re City of Sanctuary application, including the articles submitted by Rev. Barrett. I tried to see it from a sympathetic viewpoint but was astonished by the extent to which the debates seem to be promoting the very dependency I would hope we were trying to remove. I would urge more people to attend these meetings and see for themselves.

I do feel strongly that the conventional teaching of slavery is damaging to the self-esteem of the black community. In any case, as any well educated historian will tell you, most slaves were rounded up by Africans themselves, marched to the coast and then sold to British and other merchants at the slave ports in what is now Ghana. The reason for this is that white men could not easily survive in the interior of Africa and so needed willing black collaborators to "harvest" the slaves. Slavery was certainly not a uniquely white European crime. These forts/ports are now holiday destinations for those seeking a better understanding of their background.

I think teaching about the absurdity, ignorance and cruelty of racism might be useful, but black slavery is not as relevant to contemporary Britain or Bristol as is people trafficking, a more acceptable euphemism for slavery. More usefully, racism and bigotry prevention via education spreads the enlightenment net to cover Asians and other minority groups (including religious) as well. Another benefit of this would be to show the BME community that many other groups have faced prejudice and that they, the descendants of the African slaves, are not uniquely cursed.

Just ask the Welsh and Irish if in any doubt.

In addition, academic research in the US has shown that learning about accomplished role models from one's own group (e.g. Obama) has a more positive effect than enlarging the chips on people's shoulders. To be fair, there was some discussion of this at Monday's Legacy Commission meeting, but it seemed fairly patronising and, without using the word, was emphasising the importance of proportionality in representation and employment. Interestingly, several people were careful to point out that they were not in favour of quotas. The difference between proportionality and quotas is too subtle for my limited cranial capacity. As we know in Bristol, the Jewish/Zionist obsession with the Holocaust, which we encourage, is still being used to justify tremendous injustice against the innocent Palestinians. This is a very significant but not the only example of the harmful effects of promoting a victim culture in specific minority groups. For the good of our community, I believe we must stop this obsession with victims and martyrs.

I firmly believe that some of these politically correct behaviours to which we are so devoted in Bristol, and of which the Commission is an excellent example, are motivated by a kind of buried, latent, guilty, residual racism. By this I mean that some people promote the cruel absurdities of slavery in an attempt to prove to themselves and others that they have no racist feelings. The comments of the (white) councillors who were present at that meeting, plus the (white) council officers were in this category. They were trying too hard to be appalled. A true non racist is relaxed, logical and objective. Those representatives I've mentioned above used emotion and assertion to put over the points they were making and it was not at all convincing other than to those who were convinced already and had much to gain from their victim stance. Their jobs, careers and self-respect depend on them deceiving themselves that what is palpably false on any objective assessment, can be sufficiently convincing to justify the continuing payment of blood money in the form of grants to the alleged descendants of the alleged victims of the crimes largely perpetrated by their own countrymen.

I was left in no doubt that the work of the Legacy Commission, as currently conducted, is almost guaranteed to be dangerously counter productive to the cause of community cohesion and is likely to benefit extreme right-wing parties only.

The next meeting is on Monday, 14th June at the Council House, 6 - 8 pm. Visitors welcome.

Yours sincerely,

Roy Tallis,

7 Chantry Road, Clifton, BS8 2QF

01179731022