Actually, your point about the normalcy of Churchill’s views on race was precisely why I included this in the article:
“There have been those who tried to excuse Churchill’s racism as being a product of his times, that his racism was certainly no worse than that of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, or even Susan B. Anthony. Such a view has merit, but there is more to the story. Even near the end of his life, Churchill remained a racist, but he had nonetheless made remarkable progress from the malicious racism that had defined the culture of his youth. That’s a journey the author of this article understands, having experienced a similar (and — in terms of learning to reject racism — more successful) journey.”
And ended the article with this:
“We look at history and judge with critical eyes. At least let us judge fairly, one pan for the positive, the other for the negative, and the beam between the two adjusted for the context of the times.”
No, I did not say describe the normalcy of Churchill’s racism in the same words you used, but I believed that by referring to Lincoln, FDR, and Anthony, the implication was clear.
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The reason I did not delve further into the causes of the Bengal famine and Churchill’s response to it was for the sake of brevity. The article is already a 9-minute read, and that’s already outside what I understand to be the normal — or at least most effective — read times of 5–8 minutes. Of course I want to be fair — that was why I included a link to the Churchill Project and gave a quick description of what is to be found there.
That being said, I ended the section on the Bengal Famine with a discussion on the responsibility of leaders, for that was what I witnessed in my twenty years in the Navy: the one in charge gets all the kudos for what goes right…and all the blame for what goes wrong. Churchill was the one in charge, so he gets the credit for being the one person who did the most to win WWII…and the blame for the Bengal Famine.
It’s often not fair to the leader, but such is nonetheless the nature of leadership. For a more complete grasp of what I’m referring to, please read what faces the leadership of the USS Bonhomme Richard in the aftermath of the fire (which was so severe that the Navy has since decided to scrap the entire ship):The USS Bonhomme Richard Fire: A Harsh Lesson in Command Responsibility | by Glenn Rocess | The Startup | Medium
