The Strange Myth of Black Romans in Britain
The Strange Myth of Black Romans in Britain The Museum of London is relocating to a new site in Smithfield. While it will not open for a year or two, its curators have already decided that a display about Roman London should feature a ‘typical’ London household of the 2nd century AD. Of course, a young Black single mother will serve as the head of the display. She may be seen in the picture below. There is only one slight difficulty with this: there is no evidence that a single Black individual resided in Britain during the 400-year period of the Roman occupation of this country In the past decade or so, there has been a concerted effort to convince people that Britain has always been a diverse and multicultural country. This dubious enterprise is partly based on the idea that black children in school will feel better about themselves if they are told that there have always been black people living here. This sentiment was even printed on a 50p coin a few years ago, emblazon...