This chapter examines “The Global History of the Present”, an innovative first-year history module at the University of Liverpool designed to interrogate the legacies of race and empire. Moving beyond superficial decolonial “tinkering”, the chapter explores how the module employs a pedagogy of discomfort to challenge students to engage critically with issues to do with race, colonialism, and identity. Analysing student responses within a predominantly white student cohort, the chapter contrasts, furthermore, the responses of ethnically minoritised students with those of their white peers, and the challenges for white academics in doing anticolonial work. It argues that, despite such difficulties, meaningful anticolonial engagement is possible with large student cohorts, and that white students can exhibit less fragility than expected, and view anticolonial work as a necessary recipe for hope.