Historian and TV presenter David Starkey has issued a statement apologising for his ‘damn blacks’ outburst which cost him several of his prestigious university appointments.
The TV historian had declared slavery cannot be considered genocide because “so many damn blacks” survived in an online interview with conservative commentator Darren Grimes.
Speaking on an online show called Reasoned, Starkey, 75, was asked to give his though on slavery and made a series of controversial comments.
He said: “Slavery was not genocide otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or Britain would there? An awful lot of them survived…”
David Starkey has issued a statement apologising for his ‘damn blacks’ outburst (Image: PA)
The TV star has now issued a lengthy apology – calling his remarks a “bad mistake”.
He wrote in a statement: “On 30 June 2020 a podcast was broadcast in which I discussed the Black Lives Matter protest movement and the attempt by some of its supporters to delegitimise British history.
“It is a subject on which I feel strongly since I believe a nation’s history is the only basis for its present and future. Which is why I have devoted my whole career to studying and teaching it and trying to understand it better.
The TV historian had declared slavery cannot be considered genocide because “so many damn blacks” survived in an online interview (Image: Reasoned/Youtube)
“During the interview, I used the phrase ‘so many damn blacks’. It was intended to emphasise – in hindsight with awful clumsiness – the numbers who survived the horrors of the slave trade. Instead, it came across as a term of racial abuse. This, in the present atmosphere, where passions are high and feelings raw, was deplorably inflammatory.
“It was a bad mistake. I am very sorry for it and I apologise unreservedly for the offence it caused. I have also paid a heavy price for one offensive word with the loss of every distinction and honour acquired in a long career.
The TV star has now issued a lengthy apology over his comments (Image: ExpressStar)
“Moreover, this misunderstanding of my words in no way reflects my views or practice on race. I have lived and worked happily and without conflict in multicultural London for almost 50 years and I spent much of the podcast discussing bi-culturalism as a key to the success of Britain’s multicultural society.
“But that success is founded in turn on Britain’s multi-national history in which for the last three hundred years previously excluded groups have been incorporated, with struggle but without revolution, into the political nation as full and valued citizens.
“Central also to British history is a tradition of free speech. If that tradition is suppressed on questions of race, resentments will fester rather than disappear. My principal regret is that my blundering use of language and the penalty it has incurred will further restrict the opportunities for proper debate. For it is only open debate that will heal the divisions in our society that the Black Lives Matter movement has both exposed and expressed.
“I shall be making no further comment.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
