I don’t quite know how I feel about the Edward Colston statue which was torn down, dragged to Bristol docks and throw in today.
I’m slightly torn… only slightly
I am very proud to come from Bristol and for #Blacklivesmatter to be massively supported (5,000 people!) in a city with 15% people of colour. The protest looked from what I could see of the coverage. I have been aware of the Colston statue while growing up but the worst that ever happened was he ended up with a traffic cone on his head.
Bristol have been debating if it should be taken down for a while and theres been attempts to show the historic horror of the slave trade in the UK.
I’m with the protestors. But I also think about the democratic process and encouraging people to take things into their own hands. This is also what the establishment always wanted, a way to condemn the black lives matter movement on top of the public health risk. Priti Patel is just the start of the torrent of negative press coming. I also imagine other protests in other cities might consider similar?
Positive things to come from this…
- Bristol’s Mayor has issued a statement saying Banners and placards at the base of the toppled statue will be preserved
- Even better is there is a petition to put the Martin luther king of the UK (Paul Stephenson OBE) on the top.
“I believe that one candidate for his replacement would be Paul Stephenson. He led the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott, started because Bristol Post announced in 1961 that black workers were refused work despite a worker shortage due to a resolution from the Transport and General Workers’ Union. The Boycott influenced the creation of the Race Relations Act.
- Its clear this time black lives matter is going to have some serious legacy with lots of good people and companies standing alongside.
- The calls to reform history education to include much more about the UK’s role in the slave trade, have been ignited once again.
Perhaps dear Auntie might like to follow in the steps of the good people of Brizzol!
Powerful pose, using the knee restraint which killed George Floyd while also giving the black power salute
During the Bristol Black lives matter protests on Sunday, Colston’s statute ended up in the docks. I did say there will be larger questions hung around the necks of other slave trade statutes around the UK and maybe elsewhere including America.
A lot of the discussion have been bubbling under but it feels like things are actually changing? Ok so far Robert Milligan: Slave trader statue removed from outside London museum is the only one. But questions are being asked…
Cecil Rhodes: Protesters demand Oxford statue removal
The Scottish streets and monuments built on the slave trade
Slave owner statue debate ‘long overdue’ says Sturgeon
Winston Churchill: Hero or villain?
Updated
Bill Thompson made an excellent point to me via another person he knows.
Those statutes were never permanently fixed to the base. Almost like someone knew their day would come one day. So much of what we see seems unmovable but they are built on poor foundations.
Its an analogy which can apply to many different things including the system of racism or the massive tech corps currently in play.
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Sorry but Chief Constable Andy Bennett was absolutely right to leave the protestors last week alone as they torn down the statute of Edward Colston.
Any kind of confrontation would have ended up in something far worst. Can you even imagine the police standing in the way of protesters defending a slave owner!
No, Andy Bennett showed incredible cultural intelligence. No matter what anyone else says.