Slavery reaches into the heart of Life in the UK

‘In my preparations for the test I had to memorise the names of “illustrious historical figures” who, in fact, were slave owners.’ Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

I am a Brazilian national living in the UK and am currently going through the citizenship application process. I recently had to take the Life in the UK test and, in my opinion, it is the embodiment of the British people’s resistance to coming to terms with their country’s past (Ex-Tory MP threatens to sue Cambridge University over slavery research, 31 August).

As Alex Renton said in his article (Antoinette Sandbach’s relatives owned slaves – and so did mine. We have to atone for that as best we can, 1 September), it makes people uncomfortable (typically white British people), but the avoidance of dealing with the matter makes the situation way more unbearable for people on the other side of the conversation.