A Cambridge don has claimed people who oppose paying slavery reparations are displaying ‘ignorance’ and ‘stupidity’.
The Revd Dr Michael Banner, a dean at Trinity College, believes a lack of education in schools is leading to a backlash against reparations. The academic has called for both Britain and Cambridge University to pay money to make amends for the past.
Some other academics disagree, arguing that most white Britons are descended from poor disenfranchised workers, not those who were made rich from slaves.
But yesterday Dr Banner told a slavery conference at Cambridge he was tired of ‘knee-jerk’ opposition to his idea. He said: ‘Reparations are due to the West Indies from the United Kingdom.
