AIBU to think that this is trying to airbrush history?

[BrizzleDrizzle]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-42286341/liverpool-students-campaign-to-remove-gladstone-s-name

I think they should be left as it raises awareness of the historical background and the atrocities carried out can't just be airbrushed out of existence by renaming buildings.

I completely agree. In theory, we could be erasing the names of historical figures who:

Thought women were lesser than men (almost all men, ever up until the very very recent past in our society and ongoing in other societies today)
Abused women (by their own and by today's definitions)
Abused children (by their own and by today's definitions)
Kept slaves (any of the US founding fathers, to start with, and many wealthy British landowners overseas)
Participated in wars
Participated in the abuse of workers (any factory owner up until about 20 years ago)
Participated in mass pollution (anyone in the industrial revolution to to the very recent past)
Participated in the subjugation of other nations (practically any British leader up until the collapse of the British empire, and the leaders of many other countries)
Participated in religious intolerance (Penal Laws, anyone?)

We should acknowledge what people have done that we would not do in today's society (ideally) but erasing their names from our society is not productive or helpful. Using their names positively to highlight and rectify their injustices would be more useful.

Yep, historical revisionism at its worst. Depressingly, it's another case of ambitious student politicians trying to make their mark for future self-interest. Venal and cynical.

Where do we draw the line? Mandela was a terrorist, so remove his statue? Ben-Gurion too. Oh, and Boudicca. Plus, the Webbs were eugenicists and Queen Victoria an imperialist.

There'll actually be no one left to memorialise and we'll truly be raising a generation of historically illiterate SJWs.

I'm in Liverpool and we have a Dock named after him (and other things), our city was built on Slavery. Our Museums have dedicated sections about this, as well as the Museum of Slavery.

We certainly don't rewrite history.

I think that the University does need to rethink the name for the halls of residence. It would allow for the inclusion of one of our Great Women, who were written out of being historically important.

Birds, it's the same here as well, though there is a statue and blue plaque for Elizabeth Blackwell stands by for a chorus of who?