Comments. Again (!)

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Sorry regular readers, once again comments and the contact form have temporarily been turned off.

Why? Someone on Twitter has got their knickers in a twist about an information panel at Newark Castle. 

Why has she done that? Because the information board features an image of a man of African descent. 

The man pictured is an actor, portraying a man called John Americanus, who fought for the King at Newark. John's role in the defence of Newark is well documented. And yes, John was of African descent.

The National Civil War Centre created a Civil War Trail around the town, information panels are located at points of interest. These panels feature QR codes which accessed features on a now defunct smartphone app. Each location also featured an eye witness account - stories from real people who witnessed the events in Newark. Each information panel has a photographic representation of the person whose story was told in the app. The Castle's eyewitness account was John Americanus. Unfortunately there's no mention of these eyewitness testimonies on the information panel themselves.

Without this context, it is perfectly reasonable to ask why is there an image of a man of African descent illustrating the Civil War. What is not okay is trotting out racist tropes.

If you would like more evidence of people of African origin living and fighting in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms might I suggest you look here.

Why have I been linked to this? Because I have the audacity to have posted a picture of the information board, and I have written about John Americanus. Some people clearly have a problem with evidenced facts, as it doesn't fit their own narrative. Sadly, this has happened before.

Once again, my inbox is filling up with thinly veiled racist comments, accusing me of being 'woke'. If you mean 'educated, caring, compassionate and generally a decent human being', feel free to call me 'woke' as much as you want.

Now where's the rolls eyes emoji when you need it?

So take your racist comments and feck off. When you get there feck off a bit more. Then, keep going. You'll probably start worrying that you'll fall off the edge of the world. Unfortunately not. This may come as a shock to you, but we discovered that the world is spherical a long long time ago.

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