To wonder why it's so controversial to talk about white behaviour throughout history?

OP can you find a culture that hasn’t been a perpetrator of slavery? That might be a more interesting exercise

I have read the thread, many of your posts made little sense to me.

I believe the Empire is taught giving both perspectives. I'd be shocked to hear that the slave trade for example, was being taught as something positive.

You have said that we should learn more, I agree, what do you think could be added to the syllabus?

What's that got to do with you describing enslavement as Britain being "more successful" it's disgusting. BTW two wrongs do not make a right...

Actually from what you describe there’s a very high chance your ancestors had been slaves. Plenty of white slavery in Britain.

@ASongOfRiceAndPeas
well said
now it’s more covert but still the same

You don't think other people did that?
Mansa Musa, for example, an Emporer of Mali, took 12000 of his slaves with him on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The rest had to stay behind.
He was neither English, nor white.

Nope nothing to do with colour at all, it's size and impact were because it was started by people in power or who has access to power, who also had the means and money to enslave people in large numbers.

The colour of the people's skin was just what they the rich evil colonialists used as an excuse to justify it to the rest of the nation.

They were opportunistic greedy people who happened to be white, larger in number and more powerful, they took advantage of that and used the differences in the people enslaved as an excuse.

I'd like to hear your opinion. The Empire was huge and went on for a long time.Which parts should it be compulsory to study that aren't already covered?

Yet another disgusting racist thread on Mumsnet.

In answer your question op - for the same reason it would be controversial to talk about black behaviour through history.

I think your friend means people of all colours are racist.... she's not insinuating that every person walking the earth is racist. That's my take on it anyway and I'm actually inclined to agree with her and good for her, for seeing it.

I think there's possibly some unconscious bias when it comes to employment tbh, I'm not sure it can be overcome though because if one day it's white people in smaller numbers, the unconscious bias will still be there, but the other way around.

I also think because of the lack of opportunity created by this unconscious bias, black people are targeted more when suspected of crime. No-one should be stopped by the police for nothing more than being black. This is something I think we can and should tackle.

The prejudice exists yes but it's shown right back and openly to. We're all tarred with the same brush for being "white"

Jeez, white people can be so touchy...

I'm white British. My forebears are white British. We've barely found anyone in our family tree who wasn't a farm hand, factory worker or in service. We're weren't economically privileged, but we weren't enslaved.

It's pretty obvious what white behaviour the OP is talking about: European colonialism and the TransAtlantic slave trade.

And it's pretty obvious to anyone who reads the history of that trade how it differs from other periods of slavery in its numbers, in its industrialisation, in its impact.

Most specifically, it's the ongoing impact which stems from the ideology of racism that justified the trade. The despoiling of Africa, the enrichment of the slave nations, the continuing racial inequalities in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe.

Race baiting troll

Can I ask why you thought an interesting discussion would follow from such a closed, simplistic question? 'Oppressing' people is not inherently 'white behaviour' It seems you don't know much history and have never heard of other factors such as class.

https://www.pearson.com/en-gb/schools/subject-resources/humanities.html

The Humanities cover a broad spectrum of subject areas and, when applied to school settings, we often associate the term with the following subjects: History, Geography, Religious Studies, Politics & Citizenship.

Is this intended to be goady. You're an embarrassment and I wouldn't want to be associated with you.

History is one of the humanities. Like you say, you didn’t pay attention at school so you don’t really know what you’re talking about. Maybe you were taught badly. Again, you have a lot of good points so cut out the incorrect generalisations and focus on your actual discussion.

You clearly didn't take history.... you see the selling and enslaving of the human race as a measure of success??

Go and crawl back under your rock, your giving the rest of us a bad name...

I would be quite open to discussing this but I am not clear what is meant by "white behaviour". I am white, born in England.
I live in Wales now. I'm not aware of oppressing anyone intentionally. I have learned Welsh although I have an accent and am not completely fluent. My children went to Welsh medium schools. I work for the NHS in Wales. In some people's minds I am still a colonial settler. Am I responsible from some English authorities introducing the Welsh Not?
I have also done my family history which is full of miners and mill workers and even child chimney sweeps. One branch were Irish and came over because of the famine.
The British empire certainly did terrible harm, e.g. the way the Irish famine was handled, plundering Africa and India and subjucating the population for starters.
This was led mainly by privileged ,rich aristocrats and "owners of the means of production" for want of a better term. Often men and military men. There's a class element. Child labourers in Lancashire were hungry themselves. I don't live in a bubble though and I can see people from similar backgrounds who are openly racist.
I do agree that in current western society there is white privilege.
I have a close friend who is mixed race (African/Welsh). She tells me that everyone is racist. I question myself about that. Do I have a blind spot?

Tell me what "white behaviour" is. Do all white people behave the same way?
As other people have pointed out, if you take a longer historical perspective many cultures of many racial backgrounds have enslaved and oppressed others.
Does white mean all white people or particular nationalities?

The application of critical race theory to history and the positioning of 'white people' - or 'white English people' - as a homogenous oppressor group ignores the significant variation of socio-economic factors within that group.

At the height of empire in the Victorian period the vast majority of the U.K. population were (white) working class, employed in factories, working the land or 'in service'. That accounts for around 75% of the employed population in the 1841 census. Most never saw or directly benefitted from the riches of empire. Many didn't even have the right to vote, either for or against, imperialist policies.

My ancestors were sent down coal mines or into service at the age of 14 for generations. My grandad joined the army in 1930s and was positioned in India. He joined, not because he believed in empire or wanted to oppress anyone, but because he was a working class boy in South Wales with limited opportunities beyond spending his life underground. Politically he was a communist, he supported Gandhi and he despised the Generals who called grown Indian men 'boy'. But he was a white man in a colonial army so that automatically = oppressor, right?

I do completely agree that a breadth of history should be taught and that history should be a compulsory subject up to GCSE. But approaching history purely from a narrative of 'white oppressor' is reductive and fails to reflect the breadth and diversity of our histories.