David Starkey claims Black British history only goes back 40-60 years (he’s never heard of William Cuffay)
It being Black History Month the hard right TV and social media channel GB News has obviously invited right-wing historian David Starkey to share his thoughts.
Should you really want to hear the 4 minutes plus comments you can find it on GB News itself
Starkey is an historian of aspects of the Tudor period of English history but has never shown any sign of detailed knowledge of other periods. Nor would he be expected to have since research historians generally focus on specific periods.
What Starkey does have are right-wing views and lots of them.
His GB News piece is one of his more restrained efforts, hence it hasn’t so far made the front pages. He could hardly avoid of course another pop at Miranda Kaufman the historian who through research has demonstrated a black presence in Tudor England. This annoys Starkey not that he has done any research to dispute it.
He opined rather that most British black history was wishful thinking because there was only 40-60 years of recent history that was relevant. Obviously Starkey has never heard of William Cuffay the black leader of London Chartism in 1848. There are things still to discover about his life but a lot is known although not to Starkey.
Yes indeed, here in Cardiff where I live, there has been a continuous black community for at least two hundred years. Starkey is a preposterous character and a bigot, and I am generally astonished the he has had such a prestigious career (though that probably says more about the institutions that have given it to him than Starkey himself)
My aunt is of dual heritage, her father was Afro-Carribean and her mother was white- British. My aunt was born in Yorkshire, in 1940.
Using the mathematics taught to at school, this works out that this year, my aunt will be 82.
Now I don’t know which school taught Starkey the mathematics he learnt, but 82 is considerably more than 40 to 60 years
If we go back further, there was a mixed heritage queen… Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) who was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which she was Queen of the United Kingdom until her death.
Further back there’s a portrait of John Blanke, a black musician in the Tudor Court. They wouldn’t paint a portrait of Blanke, had he not been there at the court of the Tudors.
To would not expect vibrant and busy ports like London , Bristol etc to not have residents who were from Asia and Africa as well as Europe.
This all puts paid ro Srarkeys erroneous assertions