This week's Community Column is written by Argyll and Bute MP Brendan O'Hara.

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The death of George Floyd has unleashed protests that have spread far beyond Minneapolis – again exposing the deep racial divide in US society.

America has struggled to accept that “the land of the free” became powerful and wealthy on the backs of millions of people stolen from Africa and enslaved.

Today, 150 years after slavery was abolished, the United States has still not dealt with the legacy of its shameful past, with black Americans, although accounting for around 12 per cent of the population, making up a quarter of the nation’s poorest people.

Facing discrimination at work, in education, in access to justice and in their treatment by law enforcement agencies, as well as living under a President who panders to the far right, it’s little wonder the Black Lives Matter movement finally took to the streets.

READ MORE: 'We were victims of racism growing up in Helensburgh – now it's time for Scotland to change'

But not just in America. Across the world, people have protested, not just George Floyd’s murder, but also the role others played in the evil slave trade.

Undoubtedly, Scotland profited from the enslavement of African people on sugar and tobacco plantations in America and the Caribbean.

By 1820, almost one third of plantations and slaves in Jamaica were owned by Scots. And a quick wander round Glasgow city centre serves to remind just how profitable it was.

I remember at school being taught about Glasgow’s Tobacco Lords and how their entrepreneurial spirit was something to be proud of. Rarely, if ever, were their methods called into question.

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Likewise, I recall learning about the astonishing quantities of sugar landed in Greenock. But there was more analysis about what it did to the dental health of Scots than about the enslaved people forced to produce it.

That’s why I have written to education secretary John Swinney asking him to examine the petition launched by Helensburgh siblings Florence, Madeline, Juliet and Reuben Joseph, asking that the enormously positive contribution made to Scotland by BAME communities be reflected in our school curriculum.

Because we cannot change our history and we should not deny our past. We must use it to shape and guide our future.

READ MORE: Catch up with all the latest Helensburgh and Lomond news headlines here