"I realize that the British had the same special contempt for any people they abused and exploited"
I'm sure that SJL doesn't mean that the British i.e. every English , Scot and Welsh person who has lived since the Act Of Union , had this special contempt for all races other than their own

A straw man argument gets thrown up against those who say that the British administration responsible for Irish affairs in mid-nineteenth Ireland should be held responsible for what happened in mid nineteenth century Ireland .It goes like this . "You whingers, why can't you forget your dreary steeples for once why do you hate us British ? I wasn't even born in the nineteen the century ,so don't blame me for the famine."