This week a so-called ‘equal rights campaigner’ has branded the Black Country flag as racist. According to Patrick Vernon the chains on the flag represent slavery. What an idiot!
The Black Country is an area within the West Midlands with a very distinctive history. With the Victorian Industrial Revolution this area became the manufacturing and foundry hotbed of the UK. The smog from the foundries covered everything with dirt hence the name ‘Black Country’. The area is known for chain making, lock making, and various other things in this ilk. This is part of our heritage. It is part of UK history. We are not going to change our history for some idiot who obviously has no education.
I’m sick of people saying to us that their ‘cultural people’ have no mention in certain historical films or books, or such like. Well you weren’t in our history at that time, so why the bloody hell would we put you in it? I remember watching Shaka Zulu, a South African series about a Zulu tribe. Very good series I might add. There were no white people in the tribe. Guess why? Well it was set before Europeans got there so there wouldn’t be any white people there. All the white people knew this and weren’t offended by it. In fact I didn’t hear any white person screaming ‘prejudice, get us in the program!’ But then they had common sense to look at the time period it was set in, and didn’t have a Himalayan mountain sitting on their shoulder.
If you find a depiction of a chain on a flag offensive then tough! Go live somewhere else. Walk to the West and you will find the Atlantic ocean. Carry on walking.
With regards to the slavery trade of past centuries- it was quite normal for African tribes to capture their rivals and sell them as slaves to the Europeans. So don’t just blame ‘white’ people. Take a look at African tribal history. They sold each other. Got it? They fought each other. They took prisoners and they sold them as slaves – if they didn’t keep them for themselves that is.
