17 Comments
User's avatar
Louise R's avatar

Woke nonsense. Like inserting random black people into historical movies. Visual dissonance.

Expand full comment
Simon Webb's avatar

Yes, the black people in films set centuries ago is a pet peeve of mine too!

Expand full comment
Robert Morgan's avatar

Thank you Simon, for exposing this nonsense.

Expand full comment
Simon Webb's avatar

You are very welcome.

Expand full comment
Patrick  Clarke's avatar

I used to wonder how supposedly civilised societies embraced National Socialism so enthusiastically. I don't any more. Our parents and grandparents would be turning in their graves if they could see the deranged madness of recent years.

Expand full comment
Simon Webb's avatar

I think that you are quite right.

Expand full comment
random mover's avatar

Back in the days before DNA testing, of the advanced type available today, there were physical anthropologists who went around examining corpses of unidentified homicide victims to provide the authorities with some informed speculation. I have a dim memory of reading an article about this many years ago.

Expand full comment
Simon Webb's avatar

They did and very unreliable they were too!

Expand full comment
Andy Floyd's avatar

What a fantastic article, well researched.

Expand full comment
Simon Webb's avatar

I'm glad that you liked it.

Expand full comment
Martin McAvoy's avatar

Below is how David Olusoga, described his schooldays. He is biracial but has entirely rejected the European side of his identity. There is so much more cash and glory to be made by assigning yourself to an official victim-identity group. From whom would young David learn about the evils of in-group preference? Quelle surprise, he learned about "racism" from the tribe that places their own supremacy, above every other ethno-culture on the planet! They still claim they are God's chosen people!

"There was only one teacher I ever had respect for, who I still know. He was a history teacher, understood what was going on and would intervene at times when I was being attacked verbally or physically. When we met again a few years ago I learned he was Jewish and it all made sense – why this one teacher could see what was happening, while the others explained it away or dismissed it. He recognised racism when he saw it."

https://www.teachwire.net/news/david-olusogas-schooldays-there-was-no-point-reporting-racist-incidents-my-teachers-were-racist-themselves/

Expand full comment
John Dapper's avatar

If blacks were in Britain at the time of Rome, they were slaves or servants. Rome had slaves from all their territories.

Your book on slavery "Slave Trade" is the best account I've seen on the subject.

Expand full comment
Martin Byrne's avatar

Wasn't there another claim made about Cheddar man . Apparently he was black as well, lovely teeth though , presumably from munching on that lovely cheese from which the area gets it name, or is that the other way round. Seriously through there was a man found in a bog in Ireland and he was still preserved, skin, hair, nails. He had a dark brown skin and of course claims were made he was African as well. That claim was dropped when it became obvious that his dark complexion was as a result of being buried in the dark turf that a bog is made from for many hundreds of years.

Thanks for your work Simon. Always an interesting read.

Expand full comment
Simon Webb's avatar

It is true that London’s Natural History Museum commissioned a bust of Cheddar Man showing him with black skin and that this received a good deal of publicity in newspapers and other media. It was said that this must be a shock to racists everywhere, to find that their earliest ancestors were not white at all, but black. Even the British magazine New Scientist joined in this. On 7 February 2018 New Scientist confidently reported that, ‘The first modern Briton, who lived around 300 generations ago, had “dark to black” skin.’ Two weeks later, New Scientist conceded that perhaps there was some uncertainty about the story, because the geneticists who had actually carried out the work said publicly that the Natural History Museum’s reconstruction was purely speculative and other experts asserted that there was no way at all of deciding skin colour on the basis of ancient DNA. A week later, an editorial in New Scientist admitted that the television company which had been involved in the affair might have exaggerated the results for their own reasons, saying,

The whole episode smacks of a publicity stunt to hype up the show. There is

some truth in that, but dismissing it outright does a disservice to the scientists.

According to the state of knowledge at the time, the genetic analysis did

suggest that Cheddar Man’s skin was dark. But science progresses, and since the

analysis was done last year, many more genes affecting skin colour have been

discovered. Understandably, the new science did not make it into the

documentary.

Expand full comment
John Hunt's avatar

The Ivory Bangle Lady's DNA was investigated but the results have never been published.

I wonder why!

Expand full comment
Simon Webb's avatar

I think we can guess!

Expand full comment
Patrik Johansson's avatar

Mr Webb writes: "One might have hoped that attempts to allocate people to certain racial groups according to the shape of their head or length of their nose had ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany".

I think that the good Mr Webb will (if he think twice) understand that he has gone a bit too far (to put it diplomatically) in comparing/seeing similarities with "modern Britain" and Nazi Germany.

·

(His reason for going over-the-top is anyone's guess. — But, many english will probably not think so:

–They are sick and tired/disgusted of, for so many years, being by the Establishment (politicians, journalists/columnists, debaters, museums, schools/universities, BBC, etc.) morally accused of being Subhumans/'racists' (a.k.a. 'far-rights'), and the target for their 'anti-racism'-fight/policies that are in practice racial discrimination — Mr Webb has mentioned this in videos.)

·

He forgets/does not mention the difference in intention/purpose, and everyone agrees that the nazi had really a bad one: "distinguishing them from others who were subhuman", compared with "modern Britain"s: "the cause of anti-racism".

·

And forgets/does not mention the difference of the Science claim of the nazi and the Sociological (ie. how people(s) shall get along in the same community/country) claim of "modern Britain":

"to rub the right's [the english people's] nose in [Ethnic] diversity".

(Ref 1: 2012-Apr-12, The Standard: "Don't listen to the whingers - London needs immigrants".)

(Ref 2: 2016-May-17, The Guardian: "Farage [Ukip] accuses Mandelson [New Labour] and Labour of 'rubbing our noses in diversity' ".)

·

So, what about a man who finds a woman with a certain shape of her head or length/width of her nose along with her skin-colour to be... attractive (becasue "determining racial or ethnic origins" is done by looks, that is how science works for the ordinary man: observation by sight, or touch)?

— A modern nazi?, but only if he is english and she is not?

·

LASTLY: If one wants to criticise the Establishment of "modern Britain" on this topic (race and diversity/multiculture), why not point them to (if they dare to look/observe) the reality of peoples and their societies/countries:

·

Here is one point:

2023-Jan-12 MyLondon.News: "The bustling East London neighbourhood that feels like you're living in Bangladesh": –"The BEST thing about living in Shadwell is you are LIVING WITH PEOPLE LIKE YOU," says a local who has lived and traded in the area for more than 20 years.

·

And a few others:

(so mentioned in one (?) of Mr Webb's videos) 2022-Aug-22, Nigerian Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Twitter [status/1561686986410397696]: –"Ban on the use of Foreign Models and Voice-Over Artists on the NIGERIAN Advertising Medium/Media".

·

LiberianConstitution, Chapter IV - Citizenship: Article 27 b.: ​"Eigibility for Citizenship by Birth and Naturalization Restricted to Negroes" (REF. crc.gov.lr, Constitution Review Committee; Wikipedia "Liberian nationality law").

·

14th Dalai LAMA (a very decent person, everyone agrees):

2019-Jun-27 Daily Mail (BBC interview): –"They themselves, I think [are] better in their own land. Better [to] keep Europe for Europeans [...] A limited number is OK, but whole Europe eventually become MUSLIM country? Impossible. Or AFRICAN country? Also impossible."

Expand full comment