Haven’t you heard enough about that gallant nurse from the Crimean war, Mary Seacole? Granted she deserves our respect. But now they are building a big statue of the lady in London. Her place in the school curriculum outweighs the amount of time devoted to Disraeli, Bismarck, Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx, Jules Michelet, Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Gladstone, Clive of India, Queen Victoria andFlorence Nightingale combined.
Your children, if they are educated at a state school, will be able to tell you everything about Ms Seacole, nothing about the rest. I wonder if there was some other mysterious quality she possessed which makes her so compelling? And if I’m right, if it isn’t all a little patronising.
Of course the Sousers have already jumped on that particular bandwagon with that strange kind of inverted racism that the politically correct find thoroughly acceptable:
Mary Seacole House is a mental health drop in day centre primarily for the black and minority ethnic communities of Liverpool 8, although open to all, offering support and advice in emotional and practical matters.
