Archbishop Cranmer offers this at: http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2013/10/children-should-learn-about-dead-white.html
From Father Silas:
You may be among those who were “moved” by Lindsay Johns’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference. If so, that may not be a bad thing: such movement is rare enough in such contexts, and I rather like the idea of his solid middle-England audience experiencing just a hint of moistness about the eye. Myself, I was impressed rather than moved. Impressed, firstly, by a “black” man (his online biography describes him as being of "Coloured Cape Townian and English" descent) having the courage to speak at such an event. We can but imagine how this will have gone down in Peckham where he is a volunteer mentor, and where I’m guessing that committed Tories are a bit thin on the ground.
To be fair, he seems already to have been a bit of an outsider: the quickest of Google searches leads you to a 2011 blogpost by a black Lib Dem local councillor which declares that Johns “does not represent the (black) community and his views have little or no credibility outside Middle England. He is willingly being used by the Right as a tool with which to stifle demands for racial justice.” So perhaps he feels he has little credibility to lose in that quarter.
But what impressed me more was what he said. In a phrase that may well echo down the arches of the years, he stressed the importance of young black people studying the works and words of “dead white men” (like Shakespeare and Dickens) – writers and thinkers who were formative of our culture and society, and whose work enlightens and enriches the minds of those who encounter them. This, rather than an emphasis on street culture elevated to an art form, was the surest route to true equality.
For the rest, see:
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2013/10/children-should-learn-about-dead-white.html
Children should learn about 'dead white men' – including saints and theologians
From Father Silas:
You may be among those who were “moved” by Lindsay Johns’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference. If so, that may not be a bad thing: such movement is rare enough in such contexts, and I rather like the idea of his solid middle-England audience experiencing just a hint of moistness about the eye. Myself, I was impressed rather than moved. Impressed, firstly, by a “black” man (his online biography describes him as being of "Coloured Cape Townian and English" descent) having the courage to speak at such an event. We can but imagine how this will have gone down in Peckham where he is a volunteer mentor, and where I’m guessing that committed Tories are a bit thin on the ground.
To be fair, he seems already to have been a bit of an outsider: the quickest of Google searches leads you to a 2011 blogpost by a black Lib Dem local councillor which declares that Johns “does not represent the (black) community and his views have little or no credibility outside Middle England. He is willingly being used by the Right as a tool with which to stifle demands for racial justice.” So perhaps he feels he has little credibility to lose in that quarter.
But what impressed me more was what he said. In a phrase that may well echo down the arches of the years, he stressed the importance of young black people studying the works and words of “dead white men” (like Shakespeare and Dickens) – writers and thinkers who were formative of our culture and society, and whose work enlightens and enriches the minds of those who encounter them. This, rather than an emphasis on street culture elevated to an art form, was the surest route to true equality.
For the rest, see:
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2013/10/children-should-learn-about-dead-white.html
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