【英国】学校课程仍在替大英帝国洗白，为什么这种情况必须改变？ [美国媒体]

Jeremy Corbyn has recently proposed thatBritish school children should be taught about the history of the realities ofBritish imperialism and colonialism. This would include the history of peopleof colour as components of, and contributors to, the British nation-state –rather than simply as enslaved victims of it. As Corbyn rightly noted: “Blackhistory is British history” – and hence its study should be part of thenational curriculum, not segregated in a single month each year.

杰里米·科尔宾最近提出，英国学校里的孩子应该被教授英帝国主义和殖民主义真实情形的历史。这将包括有色人种作为英国民族国家的组成部分和贡献者，而不仅仅被视为被奴役的受害者。科尔宾正确地指出：“黑人史也是英国史”，因此这方面的研究应该成为国家课程的一部分，而不是被分隔在每年的单一月份。

（译注：杰里米·科尔宾，Jeremy Corbyn，英国最大反对党工党党魁，激进左翼人士）



‘Black history is British history’

‘黑人史也是英国史’

Corbyn’s proposals would not only begin toredress the phenomenal gulf between academic history and the English schoolcurriculum. They would also help students to see people of colour as historicalagents. The proposals may also help to challenge the exclusivist andessentialist ways in which students are taught to view both Britain and thewider world
.
科尔宾的提议不只会开始弥合学术史和英国学校课程间的显着分歧。也能帮助学生将有色人种看成历史的代理人。这些提议通过同时教授学生英国和更广阔世界的观点，或许也能挑战排外主义者和本质主义者的方式。

These proposals, however, have been metwith the type of outrage many have come to expect from white, middle-aged,right-wing conservatives. According to the “bullish” Brexiteer and ConservativeMP Tom Loughton, Corbyn’s proposals demonstrated he was “ashamed” of his owncountry – and was more interested in “talking down” Britain rather thancelebrating “the immense amount of good we have done in the world over manycenturies”.

然而，这些提议已经遭遇到了中年白人右翼保守主义者所期望的那种怒火。根据“行情看涨”的英国脱欧支持者兼保守党议员汤姆·劳顿的说法，科尔宾的提议证明了他以自己的国家为“耻”，而且相比赞美“英国好几百年来对世界做过的大量好事”，他更大的兴趣在于“贬低”英国。



A battle between revolting slaves andcolonial soldiers at the plantation Bachelor’s Adventure in the DemeraraProvince of British Guiana. Shutterstock

（图解：造反的奴隶和殖民地士兵间的一场战役，英属圭亚那德梅拉拉省“学士的冒险”种植园）

“Bad things”, according to Loughton, undoubtedly happened in the nameof empire, but Britain should be proud of its many legacies – including itsrole in abolishing the global slave trade. Not to be outdone, the equallybullish Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg trotted out Britain’s abolition of the slavetrade on Nick Ferrari’s LBC show. He also noted that while there were “blots”on Britain’s colonial history it had some “good bits” that were “reallywonderful”.

按照劳顿的说法，毋庸置疑“坏事”是以帝国之名发生的，但英国应该为其留下的许多遗产而自豪，包括英国在废除全球奴隶贸易中起到的作用。而同样行情看涨的英国脱欧支持者雅各布·里兹也不甘示弱，他在伦敦广播公司尼克·法拉利的节目中炫耀了英国的废止奴隶贸易。他还指出，虽然英国的殖民历史中存在“污点”，但也存在一些“好的方面”，是“真正很了不起”的。

Denial about empire

否认帝国的种种



As my own students have told me, being ableto interrogate difficult histories such as the history of empire, to explorethe myriad connections between people in different parts of the planet, or tostudy the writings of Indian thinkers and actors has given them a much betterunderstanding of themselves and their place in the world. Or, as one studentput it, it has enabled them to “grow as a person”. And that, surely, is whateducation is supposed to do.

正如我的学生们告诉过我的，能够去质询那些不容易消化的历史比如帝国史，去探究这颗星球上不同地区人民之间的种种联系，或是去研究印第安思想家和演员的作品，能够带给他们对自己以及他们这个地方在世界中的位置深刻得多的理解，正如有个学生的说法，这已经让他们得以“全然人的方式成长”。而这无疑是教育本就该做的。

1、We cannot rewritehistory or pretend certain parts didn’t occur. As long as we also teach thepositive things we’ve brought to the world or ourselves throughout history, aswell. There is no shortage of "horrible histories” as it were, on ourpart, and it’s easy (almost fashionable now) to be self-loathing, but let’s notforget the Flemmings, or Turings, or Brunels, Darwins, Pankhursts etc that havebrought a lot of good.

我们无法重写历史，或是假装一些特定的部分没有发生。只要我们也教授那些我们在整个历史中带给世界或我们自己的积极事物。我们的那些“可怕的历史”从来都不缺，而且去自我厌恶是很容易的（几乎是如今的时髦事了），但让我们不要忘记弗莱明，或是图灵，或是布鲁内尔、达尔文、潘克斯特等等已经给世界带来的诸多益处。

（译注：亚历山大·弗莱明（Alexander Fleming，1881-1955），英国细菌学家，生物化学家，微生物学家，于1923年发现溶菌酶，1928年发现青霉素；伊赞巴德·金顿·布鲁内尔(Isambard Kingdom Brunel，1806–1859)，工程师，英国铁路体系的奠基人，革命性地推动了公共交通、现代工程等领域；艾米琳·潘克斯特(EmmelinePankhurst，1858-1928），英国女权先锋，对英国妇女获得投票权起到了重要作用)



4、I’m proud of mycountry and I don’t want it slagged off all the time. Every country on theplanet has done things in its past. What we have to understand is people’smindset was very different back in the past. What we thought of to be ok backin Victorian times would be wrong today. There are a lot of truths that arecovered up that are more closer to home. But we should be proud of our country

我为我的国家感到骄傲，我不想她老是被抨击。地球上的每个国家在过去都干过些坏事。我们必须明白的是：在过去，人们的思维模式是非常不同的。我们在维多利亚时代认为不成问题的事情在今天可能是错的。存在很多更能触到痛处的事实被掩盖了。但我们还是应该以我们的国家为傲。

5、I’m not sure themoralistic approach you suggest is the right one though. We live in a moralistic age, and there is noshortage of people ready to damn the west. When faced with simplistic moralising narratives, is it not the job ofthe historian (the academic, the educated person) to challenge that by saying -actually it’s a little more complex than that?

虽然我不确定你这种讲求道德的方法是否正确。我们生活在一个泛道德化的时代，从来也不会缺少准备谴责西方的人。当面对简单化的道德化叙事，是否靠嘴巴说去挑战它不是历史学家（学者，有学识的人）的工作呢？事实上要比用嘴巴说更复杂一些？



It is fair to say that we in Australia arestill struggling with the notion that all our prosperity and easy life is adirect result of the stealing of a land and effectively the genocide of thepeople who previously owned the land.

公平地说，在我们澳大利亚仍在和这样一种观念作斗争，即我们所有的繁荣和安逸生活都是偷取这块土地、并对曾经拥有这片土地的人民搞种族灭绝的直接结果。

In Australia , for us to continue toprosper as a vibrant ,multicultural society we eventually have to acknowledgeour past. We cannot change that past but it is at the most basic level justimpolite and dishonest not to publicly recognise that our society springs fromsome pretty evil events. If we cannot be clear and truthful about past wrongs,it is difficult for us to understand how we should behave today.

在澳大利亚，为了让我们以一个生机勃勃的多元文化的社会继续繁荣，我们终究是必须承认我们的过去的。我们不能改变那种过去，但从根本上讲，不去公开承认我们的社会发源于一些非常邪恶的事件，是不礼貌也不诚实的。如果我们不能明确并诚实面对过去犯下的错，那我们就很难去懂得我们今天应当如何去行为。

We also have living amongst us a group ofpeople whose present disadvantage and lack of power results directly from pastcolonial action. A healthy vibrant community cannot leave at its core such awronged group of people , suffering, and not work to correct those wrongs. Byrecognising the harms done to those people, and correcting their trajectory, weall grow as a society.

也有一群人生活在我们中间，他们目前的弱势和力量匮乏直接缘于过去的殖民行动。一个健康而充满活力的社区不能把这样一个蒙受冤屈的族群扔在他们中间受苦，却不去努力纠正那些错误。通过认识到对那些人的伤害，并扶正他们的轨迹，我们就都能以同一个群体去成长。



11、We must ask ourselves,why don’t the Indians and Africans teach about the role and or impact ofcolonialism on their countries and continent and their complicity in it. Manyof the countries that were colonized were co-participants. We are witnessing a new gimmick from the Westcalled “globalism” which seems like virtue signalling on face. But who are theglobalist? What do they hope to get out of it? The “globalist” are the same people engaged in colonialism and slavery.Globalism is a new gimmick designed forthem to retain ownership and control of global resources and production.

我们必须扪心自问，为什么印度人和非洲人不去教授殖民主义在他们的国家和大陆扮演的角色或是产生的影响，乃至他们在其中的共犯关系？许多被殖民的国家是共同参与者。我们正在见证一种来自西方的新把戏名曰“全球化”，表面看起来它是在昭显一种美德。但谁是全球主义者？他们希望从中得到什么？“全球主义者”和从事殖民主义和奴隶制的人是同一拨人。全球化是一种为他们而设计的新把戏，为的是保有对全球资源和货物的所有权和控制权。