The British empire has been all but airbrushed from our history: we rarely talk about it, let alone debate it. It is university students who are trying to teach us, or at least prompting us to have a conversation about our past. It began with Rhodes Must Fall, a global movement beginning in South Africa that spread to Oxford University, where black students had the temerity to object to a statue of the racist, white supremacist colonialist Cecil Rhodes.

But there are new targets: Christopher Codrington, a 17th-century slaver who had an Oxford library named after him (itself funded by “compensation” for the abolition of slavery); Jan Smuts, another white supremacist and former South Africa prime minister; and even Queen Victoria (though, despite media reports, students are not calling for the actual removal of her statue). On Wednesday, students will congregate outside Oxford’s Oriel college to support the #RhodesMustFall movement.

There are numerous objections to the students’ cause. One is that they are applying the standards of today to a bygone era. But slavery and colonial subjugation are horrors in absolute terms, and were opposed by people at the time – the people we should be remembering with statues and libraries, rather than racists and colonialists. Another is that they are trying to erase history. They are actually doing the opposite: forcing us to remember that which has been intentionally forgotten.

Is this a popular cause? No. A poll in January found that 43% of Britons think the British empire was a good thing – only 19% dissented, while 25% opted for neither – while 44% believed we should be proud of colonialism, with just 21% arguing we should regret it. Hardly surprising, though, given the airbrushing that has taken place. How many people know about, say, the millions of Indians killed by famines that have rightly been described as “engineered” by the British empire? Despite the compensation granted in 2013 to Kenyans tortured by the British government during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising, few know of the atrocities committed. Concentration camps set up by the British government during the Boer war – all but forgotten.

Why not forget? There are many reasons. Much of modern racism has its roots in colonialism: to justify the subjugation of others, it was necessary to claim that they were inferior, and indeed inherently so. We cannot understand today’s world without understanding the colonial past: whether it be Palestine, conflicts in Africa or Irish politics. And our attitude to foreign policy – and foreign military adventures – may be challenged with a broader historical understanding.

That doesn’t mean an exercise in self-flagellation. These were crimes that, after all, Britain’s rulers were responsible for. There will be those reading this piece and strongly disagreeing. Fine: but at least let’s have the debate as a country about empire, rather than just dumping it into the “awkward, best not discussed” box. And there is so much in our history for us to be proud of: those who sacrificed so much to win us our rights and freedoms, from trade unionists to suffragettes, anti-racists to the British soldiers who fought the Nazis.

Whatever your perspective, these students are doing us a favour. They’re forcing us to confront our history – and understand better who we are.