Very saddening but definitely not surprising. In school we only get taught all of the good things Britain/England did (whether legitimate or not) and there is barely any, if at all, reference to the bad. In the wider world you really have to actively seek out education on the horrors of colonialism because not even our museums, popular media and more really touch on that stuff.
For instance I went to the Imperial War Museum last year and there was barely a mention of colonial wars despite those taking up such a massive chunk of the wars Britain fought in. There's no harrowing exhibitions or grand displays on the horrors Britain forced upon its colonies (even during the wars the Museum actually covers) but you can be damn sure that there's
tons on what the Nazis did (and, in turn, what we saved the world from).
So when people grow older they have this entrenched view of Britain, and the British Empire, as a unilaterally good thing, and when people come and say that "no, it isn't," they view that as an attack on their identity. Either that or they simply don't care that much, which is a very big possibility for reasons I've tried to explain in my quote below.
I don't know how it can change, really. The only way I can see it changing drastically is through time. The young of today aren't going to be living in the idealised post-war Britain of the mid 20th century, they're going to be living in a Britain divided by Brexit and pilfered by the actual superpowers of the world. Anecdotally I've yet to meet a single young person my age who is genuinely proud of their country in the way most Boomers are.
Then again we're also living in a society where media is controlled so insanely heavily by people who would have likely been colonisers 'back in the day' so who knows, things might just stay the same. I also can't deny the underlying racism of it all; for many people it's sickeningly common for them to just not really care (or worse) about the things that happen to those of different races so even education might not be able to change them.
Something should definitely be done, though, I'm just not the one to really say what that is.
I'm more shocked by the number of people across the board who say it's nothing to proud of or ashamed of.
The hell kind of person says "Yeah, I'm indifferent on Colonialism".
I can see their point, even if I don't agree with it whatsoever. When you ask "are you ashamed/proud of something" that is generally seen as a personal thing, and for many people they personally do not see the ways in which colonialism may have helped and, potentially, harmed them. They see the white privilege of today as something that, at best, is not tied to the colonialism of yesterday and, at worst, doesn't even exist. So, when asked whether they're proud or not of colonialism, they see it as whether they're proud or not of some things a bunch of people did decades before they were even born.
Add that on to the fact that, despite colonialism, the Britian of that era was still rife with extreme poverty, horrible worker's rights and generally shit conditions then many can easily argue that "My family didn't do it, so why should I be ashamed
or proud?" Contextually when someone's barely scrounging by in the lower-working class with a family history that consists primarily of poverty I think that such a view-point is one that can naturally happen considering the utter lack of education we have on colonialism and its effects.
It's not a correct view-point because, as mentioned above, the white privilege of today is a direct result of colonialism no matter your familial situation/history, but if we're to educate people better on the matter then it's something that needs to be taken into account.
Personally I think these sorts of questions should be worded differently. Using words such as 'proud' or 'ashamed' turns it so much more personal than it really should be as it directly ties one's own identity to that of colonialism and, as such, can only really strengthen people's already-existing wrong views instead of leading them to perhaps question them. I can't really say how they should be worded, though, and there's a fair chance I'm wrong here so who knows.
