Hideously diverse Britain: the college where histories collidePosted in Articles, New Media, Social Science, United Kingdom on 2010-02-10 17:22Z by Steven |
Hideously diverse Britain: the college where histories collide
The Guardian
2010-01-10
It was 1940 and the 200 students of South West Essex Technical College posed ramrod straight on the sharply inclined steps; ties stiff, uniforms crisp. They were RAF cadets learning science and engineering at the place that was dubbed the People’s University. Unsurprisingly, those pictured were all white.
The place is called Waltham Forest College nowadays and the grand steps remain imposing. The porticos, by sculptor Eric Gill, have been lovingly preserved.
But last week, when the east London college recreated that recently discovered archive photograph, everything else was different. The formation was identical to that created with military precision all those years ago, but lining the steps were 200 students from another generation, another century. White Britons, black Britons, teenagers of Asian and African and Mediterranean and Eastern European descent. A student body with links to every continent on the planet. Speakers of 76 different languages. Each standing out in the cold to make a statement. “I told them it was their job to represent their era, just as the cadets in 1940 were symbolic of that time,” said lecturer Gaverne Bennett. “They bought into it.”…
Read the entire article and view the photographs here.