Why Britain should not follow Germany's approach to recognising its racist legacy

Two recent articles published in the Guardian by Professor Susan Neiman and the 2018 European Book Prize winner, Géraldine Schwarz, in the context of the Black Lives Matter Movement suggest that Britain should follow Germany’s example in dealing with its racist legacy. This opinion piece argues that it should not. While it is irrefutable that Germany has taken some important steps to face up to its Nazi past, to suggest that this means Germany has ‘confronted its racist legacy’ in a general sense is deeply misguided. I argue that this erroneous conclusion is due to a misunderstanding by both authors about what racism is, and how it operates. The UK, like any other ex-colonial power, should take a more principled and systematic approach to dealing with its racist legacy, and following the German example would undermine this.