...I doubt there were very many of them.
The findings have parallels with the Covid pandemic where, early in the crisis, it emerged Black people were four times more likely to die than white people, mainly because they had a higher risk of infection. Such disparities in mortality decreased as the pandemic wore on. “Medieval England was a diverse population and, like today, issues around people’s heritage [and] wealth have health outcomes,” said Dr Rebecca Redfern, a co-author of the research at the Museum of London.
A 'diverse population', eh? OK, I'm not great with numbers, so...what are the numbers, here?
Writing in the journal Bioarchaeology International, Redfern and colleagues report how they analysed remains from 145 individuals buried at East Smithfield emergency plague cemetery, St Mary Graces and St Mary Spital in London.
145 out of the hundreds of thousands of plague victims, eh? And how many were black?
Of these, 49 died from plague and 96 died from other causes.The results reveal nine plague victims appeared to be of African heritage, while 40 seemed to have white European or Asian ancestry.
Nine? Well, I might be no better than Diane Abbott at maths-related stuff, but I know a miniscule percentage when I hear one.
Dr Onyeka Nubia, a historian at the University of Nottingham and author of Blackamoores, about Africans in Tudor England, said for some, it remains a challenge to accept that people of different ancestries and heritage were an established part of England’s past.
No, it's not a challenge at all, what's a challenge is the attempt to make it sound as if a time traveller to medieval London would find it no different to today in terms of 'cultural enrichment'.
But, he cautioned, historical evidence must be treated objectively. “We have a responsibility to make sure that this information does not get divided between left and right in a culture war,” he added.
If there's a culture war, who was it who fired the first shot, hmm,,?
