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The goal of this podcast is to assess the effectiveness of international slavery museums in portraying the narrative of slavery and its consequences. The exhibition covers various themes such as underachievement of black people, resistance, and the recollections of slaves. It provides a timeline of slavery's course and its impact on Liverpool and the wider world. The exhibition fails to mention the legacy of slavery, including the report on underachievement among black and ethnic minority pupils. Sociological factors such as lack of strong ethnic identity and linguistic exclusion contribute to low educational achievement. The exhibition should make these connections clearer for viewers. It also highlights the link between slavery and underachievement through artifacts like the East India Sugar Bowl. The exhibition shows how slavery was an integral part of everyday life and its role in capitalism. It emphasizes the systematic injustice and the collective effort needed to abolish slavery Before delving into details, the goal of this podcast is to critically assess for international slavery museums' attempt at showcasing transatlantic slavery and its legacies. It's well known the effects of a transatlantic slave trade, in that it dispossessed millions of Africans, subjugating them to brutal working conditions on American plantations, but little is commonly known of its aftereffects on those peoples and communities in their new world. This podcast aims to assess the exhibition's effectiveness in portraying the narrative of slavery, as well as examining slavery's role in developing society into what it is today, and how well the exhibition conveys this to the audience. The museum's display of interconnected themes such as the underachievement of black people, resistance, and the recollections of slaves and slave catchers is important as it presents an understanding of slavery's dark past, as well as the efforts against it, and how the consequences are still being felt today. It also provides a timeline of slavery's course showing the trajectory of slavery, from some of the early slaves on the boats to its eventual dissolution. Whilst this large array of topics is inevitably going to lead to some to be neglected, this broad coverage gives the viewers a better general understanding of the impact of slavery on Liverpool and the wider world. One notable point of interest was the report of underachievement amongst black and ethnic minority pupils. In this, I think the legacy of slavery is evident, in that enslaved people were subjected to work for nothing, with barely anything to survive on. Fast forward post-slavery era and black people are underachieving and reliant on the welfare state for housing. Sociologist Rivers Drake argued that a lack of a strong ethnic-racial identity leads to low levels of educational achievement. In a society wherein skewed pseudo-scientific notions and racist ideas fuelled by the church, this presence in the past was much more powerful than in our secular society, led to rampant belief in the inferiority of black people. This negatively damaged black people's perception of themselves, creating an imposter syndrome feel as if school was not a place for a black person. These ideas were the same ones used to justify job discrimination in job hiring and to black people already in jobs, with them often being underpaid or not given the job, despite being more than qualified, leaving them in debt and unemployed. Black people faced colonial alienation of the language of formal education in the home and in the community. This phenomenon, characterised by linguistic, educational and societal exclusion, significantly decreased black students' chances at achievement. Mokom argued this was happening in the UK due to black Caribbeans celebrating their black British talk, which led to their limited skills in processing information compared with their white counterparts, who spoke in standard British English utilised in schools. This meant black students had to adjust to using a new elaborate code of speech, which was confusing for them to understand in schools, making them feel unmotivated and out of place. Without a strong ethnic identity, black students fell into that self-fulfilling prophecy of not being able to achieve a higher paying job, turning to illegitimate means of work and unemployment, explaining the 60% unemployment figure for black people in 1980s Liverpool. The museum however doesn't mention any of this or show the findings of the study, just showing the front cover, leading viewers to form their own opinion. Everyday viewers don't have the sociological knowledge to deduce the effects racism still has hundreds of years later, especially to a white British man who hasn't personally felt such struggles. Leaving the meaning of what the artefact is trying to convey leaves it open to interpretation, with many racists accrediting it to black people's laziness. This completely disregards the racism society institutions play in students falling short, so the exhibition should make it clearer, as it's confusing in how these fit into their narrative of proposed slavery consequences. Furthermore, the page with the stats comparing the different ethnic groups of students' results would be good to compare their results and how far behind black students were. However, the text underneath the report is useful in showing viewers how behind they were, noting the effects slavery had on job opportunities. The report-slash-booklet was also carried out by the Afro-Asian Standing Committee for Merseyside, meaning it would have looked at the underlying factors for such large numbers of unemployment, rather than the council, who might want to sleep Liverpool's links to slavery under the carpet. This would provide more validity to their reasoning as to why black people as a whole struggle with employment, giving the exhibition's reasoning on post-slavery consequences more validity in turn. The exhibition should have put up the page in the booklet displaying their reasoning, so viewers have a more immersive experience understanding how events of the past are actively influencing present-day struggles for working-class black students and their goal of social mobility. The East India Sugar Bowl also links in with the struggles of slavery, as inscribed on it says, for produce or free labour. The exhibition is able to create the link between slavery and underachievement, as the bowl signifies the quote-unquote free labour slaves provided, and thus after being freed slaves, they were penniless, and due to marginalising laws, material deprivation was suffered for generations, a direct link to black underachievement in schools. By creating this link, it shows the long-term consequences of slavery and its effects on social mobility. The information provided also mentions the mass production of sugar for tea was by slave labour, showing how slavery was used to provide the everyday compass for items you would have had no idea about, and how the free labour was essential in the globalisation of the world. The fact that it is displayed shows how slavery was an inescapable part of everyday life during the 18th and 19th century, and this exhibition shows how pivotal it is in history, as we see how companies follow this model of production. The notoriously poor fire records for sweatshops in Bangladesh, second largest garment exporter, shows the way of producing goods to the West hasn't changed, even if it ends in loss of life, as it did claim over 100 in a 2012 Dakar factory, according to the New York Times. Multinational corporations prioritising the greed over safety mirrors the past behaviour of slave catchers, whose boats were plagued with disease and sickness, killing hundreds of enslaved, but in the pursuit of money, it wasn't deemed an issue. The dehumanisation of workers has continued, as consumers in the West experience disconnect from the trials the sweatshop workers or the former slaves have and had to deal with, indirectly fuelling the exploitation to continue. In this way, the museum is able to touch on the role slavery had with capitalism, as the imperial powers were able to leverage that cheap labour for mass production of their exports, kick-starting a more interconnected world, which ties into the point of how slavery is hiddenly rooted in many aspects of society untold. The exhibition successfully showcases how during the Industrial Revolution and the day Bobo was made, the 1820s to 30s, the modernisation of societies was incapable of growing so rapidly without slavery, making the exhibition useful in understanding how modern society and contemporary societal structures came about, with slavery being why many Western countries were able to establish themselves as world economic leaders due to generational trade links. This ties in fluidly with the theme the exhibition seeks to convey, that although slavery has long been since abolished, African nations struggle with economic volatility whilst the Western world hundreds of years later reap the rewards. I think this piece is smartly curated, as it emphasises the systematic injustice and serves as a metaphorical representation of the dehumanisation of slaves, being merely reduced to units of quote-unquote free labour, how many workers nowadays in sweatshops are treated. Whilst the resistance of slavery by the enslaved is often reported and widely known, the exhibition makes sure to include the efforts that ordinary white Brits had in counteracting slavery. This defies the common myth that all white people in Europe and America were compliant with slavery, and that former slaves were the only ones that brought about their abolition in 1807, showing the audience that collective effort was needed to put an end to it. This fits well into the narrative the exhibition brings, as it focuses on firstly the resistance to slavery, then the products slaves are used to cultivate, then the end is the consequences that slavery has had on those later generations. However, the street name display piece could be perceived as insensitive due to Sir John Newton, whom the street was named after, being a former slave ship commander, so it could be misinterpreted as the museum disregarding his contribution to the displacement of thousands. However, personally, I find the piece thought-provoking, as it shows how despite the racist mind Newton undoubtedly had, he was able to change his ideas on equality and freedom, and share his compassion and take a stand against slavery, something many have had to do today with the global terminals of the world. The DVD Colourblind being displayed allows for the personal accounts of those affected by the consequences of racism to be shared, showing the unfortunately dire results because of the legacy of racism in the UK. This film signifies the legacy of racism and prejudice, which has made white British men feel okay in murdering innocent black men. It also signifies the widespread nature of racism within the UK, as the DVD was put up in 2009, after the high-profile cases of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, Damilola Taylor in 2000 to a 12 and 13 year old, and Anthony Walker in 2005, whom the film is about. The similarities between all of these stories is they were racially motivated, so a piece of memorabilia from these other stories would have better conveyed the message of the victimisation black people currently face. Nevertheless, this DVD serves as a poignant reminder of the persistence of racism and racial violence in the UK. The long lasting effects of racism has even manifested itself in children, with them turning into killers, the exhibition showing that racism is still very much alive, and how far we still have to go in making the UK and the world an inclusive society. The display of this DVD, however, could have been better with it being the main focal point, as it happened in Liverpool, so it could be personal to many residents, and would make the exhibition more intimate as visitors feel the tragedy more, with their city being associated with such a violent crime. Putting it front and centre with bigger writing would have helped, because it is small being a DVD, risking it being overlooked and Anthony's story going unheard, so there are improvements in the display to be worked on. The display of the HMS Antelope covers another dimension of the transatlantic slave trade, that being politics and law. The ship being part of the anti-slavery patrol for West Africa shows there were measures practised protecting Africans from illegal slavery, showing they were more recognised as actual people by Western society, who despite still benefiting through colonialism, weren't as depraved as before. This piece, however, also shows the vulnerability Africans constantly faced, and how much they actually weren't viewed any better. It had been over 40 years since the 1807 abolition of the Slave Trade Act, and patrol ships were still needed to protect Africans from being captured. Adding on to that, whilst 150,000 Africans were set free from these patrols along the West Coast, there were countless amounts of enslaved stolen and sold. I think this piece fits into the message the exhibition is trying to convey, that resistance to slavery was constantly being set back against, and despite the formalisation of slavery being banned, racism and capitalist greed was too insatiable to resist. The legacy of this greed is ever-present today, as in pre-America, house prices rose by 12% from last year, with homelessness increasing by 71,000, and 12 million households severely cost-burned. The capitalist nature of the world has not changed since then, with landlords displacing families for money, echoing the desires of plantation owners and slave catchers of the past. Overall, I would say the exhibition does quite a good job at showing the effects of the transatlantic slave trade, and how it changed the course of the world. For better or worse, it is up to you to decide. The symbolisation of different pieces cover so many themes, such as social issues with DVD about the racially aggravated murder of Anthony Walker, or economic issues in regard to the sugar bowl or manilas on display. Whilst they could have used more pieces in bringing about their message, they were still able to convey the legacy of racism and how it manifested. Throughout the exhibition, the overarching theme of this legacy and how it manifested can be seen in each of the pieces used from the recollections of slave voyages to the street sign of an abolitionist. We can really see how it has impacted the various institutions which we interact with, forcing us viewers to confront the uncomfortable truth about the persistent racial disparities black people face today, and how far we still have to go. Thank you for listening in.