Wilberforce and the Whinger

A TYPICALLY fastidious Lee Jasper, that race-warrior extraordinaire, made some disparaging remarks regarding the film Amazing Grace (a biopic about William Wilberforce) which aroused VPL’s considerable ire. According to the morally imperious Mr Jasper:

‘The film prettifies the tragedy, the horror and the brutality of the slave trade. It seeks to give the impression that one man freed millions of slaves and negates the contribution of the enslaved Africans to their own freedom to a bit part.’

Which begs the question of just what is it that this indignant chap wants? What will finally make the right-on Chairman of National Black Alliance, National Black Caucus and Operation Black Vote happy? When every white person in Britain undertakes daily flagellation in ritual atonement for the behaviour of a small percentage of their forebears? Or if we were all forcibly strapped down to undergo a bizarre Ludovico-esque treatment in which we were made to watch a montage of unpleasant images of the maltreatment of slaves and natives for 24 hours so we would be left in no doubt as to the sadism and barbarity of our ancestors? Or perhaps if we were all forcibly sterilized, thus bequeathing Britain to the Negro and the South Asian (hang on...), Mr Jasper might then cease his incessant whining?
Throughout history many deeply unpleasant things have been done (and, of course, continue to be done) by man against his fellow, but continually focusing on these past transgressions is not healthy and, in the case of the West, this enforced reminiscence is responsible for fostering a feeling of general culpability (everything from Imperialism to global warming via the Holocaust is laid at our gore-splashed feet) which is causing untold damage to national confidence and leaving citizens estranged from the history and culture of their homeland. Perhaps Mr Jasper should reflect on just how fortunate he is to reside in a country that is honourable enough to acknowledge past wrongdoing and produce films like Amazing Grace, which confronts this disgraceful episode in our national story and our subsequent redemption from it by enlightened men like Wilberforce. Now why can’t he go and find a real job (id est one that preferably does not require him to discern some form racism or bigotry in every aspect of British culture and history).