Well for starters the question contains the answer you want. You have made an a priori assumption the workers are racist…. Which sort of suggests you’ve already pre-decided which way you want to answer the question.

I suspect the average worker was too concerned with packing and unpacking cargo ships, feeding his family, and trying to stay out of the workhouse to care much about how the sugar and coffee got there. Despite the fact you’re insisting Africa, the Caribbean and the US were right under their noses.

If you’d asked do I think the middle classes or gentry class in Liverpool were complicit, I’d almost certainly say yes…. but you didn’t. You’ve made it clear what answer you’re looking for.

So here you go. Were the racist Liverpool filthy racist racist scouse scummy racists all racists and complicit in all the horrible racist atrocities in the world, wherever they were committed? Did they twirl their evil moustaches and laugh at the sheer inhumanity of their evil racism and give each other 19th century racist high fives.

Sure. Let’s go with that.