My white, privileged, American edumacation has gaping holes, so I'm asking:

This post is prompted by a series of things:

1. "A More Perfect Union," by Barack Obama (and yes, it is by him, not a speech writer; he was a writer before he was a politician). Yes, I'm spamming this. It's good to read, even if you don't vote for him.



2. Various posts I've come across in LJ, regarding the racial subtext in NewWho and Torchwood



3. Following from the previous: My immense (perhaps disproportionate) relief that the picture of David Tennant on my local PBS tv station was a false alarm: we'll actually be starting with Tom Baker (:::Whew:::).



4. Recent dreams/nightmares I've had where my own subconscious has been scaring me by pointing out my own racism, and humiliating me for it.



5. A segment on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, yestderday, about a new book that's just been published: Slavery by Another Name, which points out that actually, despite the 14th Ammendment to the Constitution ratification in 1868, racial slavery didn't really end in America until around World War 2.

Okay, so, for a long time, I've held the undoubtedly naive view that Britain isn't as racist a society as America, that there is less tension between Whites and People of Color over there than there is over here. That view has been changing in recent years (especially thanks to the Internet, and actually being able to converse with Brits on a day-to-day basis). Still, while the state of racism may be neither better nor worse in British society, the baggage of history probably means it's different in certain ways... But now, I'm beginning to wonder if that's a false assumption, too.

So here're my questions (my education is so American-centric, it's embarrassing):

Do you have any suggestions for good histories on racial slavery, from the British Point of View: Tomes, Magazines, Websites, or films?

I know Britain played a big role in the trading of slaves, but was slave ownership a part of British society, too?