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

Nobody said you have to hate Churchill. Dont have to worship him either. It doesn't have to be one or the other. He got us through the war and he was horribly racist etc. You don't have to choose and you don't have to end every sentence with "but xyz"

Lots of British people love Churchill but don't scratch beneath the surface. I do know plenty of British people who don't love him!
It's not right to say all British love him.

You won’t get people to hate Churchill in the UK, racist yes, he is the reason why we aren’t speaking German. He was a racist, but he’s also inextricably linked with the freedoms we all have now in the UK and Europe.

But a lot of English people hated Churchill. My parents and FIL did and they would be over 100 years old now. He was voted out after the war. He was just a good orator who led the war cabinet. English people then were just like now, some Reform voters, some Jeremy Corbyn fans and various shades of middle ground. In general the way history is taught has become less Britain centric. It’s the stereotyping and phrase “white behaviour “ that’s bothering people.

Yes Churchill got us through a war .Different times

Your never going to get British people to hate Churchill as he steered us through the war with Germany.

Yep he also did shit things. Through out history other leaders have done the same. Just look at the Middle East.

What you’re doing is instilling hate in to a small child rather than balance.

I said way up thread about a convo I had with my dd about some of the things the British did and she was shocked - but I also pointed to the rail ways, roads, canals, telegraph poles and bridges that were built under great hardship but massively benefited the country- even to this day.

How is your child going to feel taking on an adult history teacher who will basically be able to point out the transformation India went under British rule? You should be teaching them balance so they don’t embarrass themselves in front of their peers

What I take to be the impetus behind the OP - (roughly) that discussions of historical racist oppression tend ubiquitously to be derailed by contemporary racism-informed whataboutery - is well exemplified by this thread itself.

In response to OP's question: the reason it's apparently controversial boils down to its being another shadow of empire. In brief, the apparent controversy is caused by (mostly past) British and other western European imperialist oppression and present-day effects thereof.

Those who rail at "racism against white people" would do well to think about their own status as victims of this ineluctable shadow-of-empire mechanism. They won't, of course. They can't.

What's so bad about imperialist oppression? This is one thing. There are others.

I can't believe people carry do much hate for people of a nation just because in past, some unrelated people from that country did bad things. I am Indian but I don't live with hate for British, Dutch, Portuguese and middle Eastern who colonised my country in past. People of today have nothing to do with it. People who don't like being stereotyped are stereotyping others.

That comes across like a toddler throwing his toys out the playpen because he didn't get his own way.

It must really grind your gears that people are getting sick of attitudes like this and starting to call it out for what it is.

The card your waving is becoming worthless more and more every day. 😂

You haven't been able to prove that these behaviours are entirely "white" behaviours.

Who said that?

I teach Yr 8 History (so compulsory) and teach about colonialism; the slave trade; the way the English treated the Irish during the famine; treatment by the wealthy of the poor in Britain such as factories, growth of towns and mines. We also use David Olusoga “Black and British” to allow pupils to read independently about this topic.

My DC in Yr 5 at the same school studied the Slave trade this year and took in a number of my books to share with her class (inc Olusoga’s picture book version of “Black and British”) and she learned about the horrors committed by the English.

I don’t think we (as a school) whitewash History. In Media we discuss the narrative of the white man being a “goody” and the native being a “baddy.” In English we teach a selection of texts that challenge stereotypes and read literature by non-white authors and explore their cultures.

I don’t think we do anything which is rocket science TBH, but we are an indie school so have freedom to teach what we like.

White is right. So predictable.

The problem is OP and others are confusing History with some kind of SJW team sport.

History is the study of who did what and why; cause and effect.

If you decide to categorise people purely by skin colour before you even start, you're making it impossible to really examine what happened. Because people aren't lumpen blocs of ethnicity. Different states, societies, organisations, regions, tribes, families and individuals act independently of each other and in differing ways for differing reasons.

I suspect it is to do with the perceived wealth this Country has in comparison to others. There are some camps that repeatedly say the UK should pay compensation to atone for wealthy Brits from hundreds of years ago making money from owning slaves.

In reality higher taxation of those making higher wages today is (or should be) paying for a health and benefit system that benefits those of lesser means today. Be they black, white, green, blue, red or anything else.

This

How many countries have a clean and innocent history. Its just some countries get slated more for what occurred hundreds of years ago than other countries do.

I think your post is mixing up what is the subject of the thread and your personal feelings now. As previously stated, most people in the UK are happy to discuss our history, including the parts that don't reflect on Britain well.

Trying to conflate your opinions and feelings today with history from hundreds of years ago, does nobody any good.
Using health outcomes as an example, there are genetics at play for poorer health. Illness like diabetes and obesity are found higher in black women than White.
Or the oft quoted fact that black women are far more likely to die in childbirth. To give a true indication if it is a failure by medical staff, you need to look at factors like pre-existing illness, do black women have more babies than white (eg twice as many babies means double the risk), is home birthing more common in blacks. As well as a number of other factors.

Op, why do you have to start a thread when you are not impacted by any of it. Is it to tell us how morally superior you are by having such fair thoughts? I am Indian and what your ancestors did to mine does not worry me in my day to day life.

What annoys me is your virtue signalling and attacking people with words like whataboutry to shut a fair discussion. Because you are English, you only know what British Empire did to common wealth countries, because I am Indian I know what other nations did to India and other Asian countries and noone talks about it. You feel virtuous talking about white atrocities. Fact is any one group of people with power and resources had exploited others. You got your daily dose of showing us how much worried you are for poor us, maybe let us deal with that. Those Indians who don't stay in past have built the country and its wealth, some have left the country and able to work in so called prestigious professions. Don't worry about us, try tp fix problems of your own people. You have no empathy for those who in your own neighbourhood are suffering, have voted for shitty government's to make people poorer, old people lacking care, fix that first.

Yes have to agree

I remember a history textbook in the 00s

It stated the Arabs enslaved black people before the people from Europe began taking Slaves to America but this was ok somehow because they could buy their freedom or something along those lines

How convenient I thought

It seems to me that you are suffering from what many are claiming that "white" people are suffering from.

Not wanting to admit that your heritage has (in some cases) a very nasty past.

Why is that?

Very few countries histories are innocent of bad behaviour.
It just seems that many people just enjoy pointing it out to white people and dislike it when the truth is spoken back to them.

For all this talk of history should be taught as the truth, there are very few people that seem to actually want that.