Why does Thami refer to the Bible story of slaves building the pyramids in Egypt?

They cover Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Byron, Tennyson, Shelley, Wollstonecraft, and Keats, focusing mostly on events in their lives. Mr. M prompts them to focus on actual poetry more, and they start to recite poems for the other student to complete. The practice goes off the rails when Thami starts to talk about the pyramids being built by slaves in the Bible; he notes that there were many more slaves than masters and that, unlike them, the black people of South Africa "won't leave it to time to bring them down" (p.45). Mr. M questions who exactly Thami is referring to and Thami says "The People" (p.45). Mr. M questions whether he counts as one of those and Thami tells him that he can choose to by identifying with the fight for freedom. Mr. M argues back, saying that he must be one of The People then since he does want their freedom, but saying that he's been fighting for it in a different way for a long time. He tells Thami that lawlessness is not okay for anyone, the government or the people, so nobody should be toppling each other's statues.