Peter K, you are right about Britain's role in the slave trade, and that role is no loger hushed up. In the last year along, the BBC aired at least two major documentaries on the subject.

But their role was mainly as trader, not user of slaves, and as a result comparatively few slaves were employed in Britain itself, and few ordinary Brits had an opportunity to consider their stance against a person of colour. So (according to a statement I made in an earlier posting about having the object of prejudice available in sufficient numbers), there had been comparatively few racist incidents in Britain itself throughout the 18th-19th century. At the same time in the US there were many more such incidents - simply because there were more people of colour around to "be racist against", and therefore more overt racist crimes were perpetrated in full view of the populace.

Britons found their own racism only in the 20th century, when there was more ample opportunity through immigration.

So my statement about the "rich history" stands, I think.