To feel emotional at the slave trader statue

[Millicent10]

being pulled down earlier.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52954305

This says so much and the symbolism of throwing it in the river is such a suitable ending. Reminds everyone what happened to so many slaves.

@MilkTrayLimeBarrel

Do you know what, I will probably get banned for this (and I don't really care) - but I am sick of being made to feel guilty because I am white and love my country. What do these black people want? For us British white people to lie down and let them take over our country? That's what it feels like and I am desperately sad about it. RIP England. Goodbye MN.

I really hope this doesn't get removed, the racism needs to be laid bare for all to see.

@MilkTrayLimeBarrel

Do you know what, I will probably get banned for this (and I don't really care) - but I am sick of being made to feel guilty because I am white and love my country. What do these black people want? For us British white people to lie down and let them take over our country? That's what it feels like and I am desperately sad about it. RIP England. Goodbye MN.

Good grief. You really don't get it do you petal. Sorry you feel 'desperately sad' ... poor you. Ta - ra and don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.

Not that it makes a difference, but to those saying owned 80 th slaves, No he was onvolved in the trade/ movement of 80th slaves that's not actually the same thing. Not that it matters.

How do we learn from our mistakes if the past is rewritten. In 30 years it will become just a BLM protest thing. Not a lesson on how we enslaved millions of people and how it should never happen again. (Although it still is). I love the protest movement I just dont beleive in covering over our disgusting past.

I think it's fantastic it's been taken down. Clearly the democratic process has failed. There have been decades and decades and decades to remove the statue celebrating a slave trader and yet here we are in 2020 and it was still there.

Now it's gone. Good riddance.

@june2007

Not that it makes a difference, but to those saying owned 80 th slaves, No he was onvolved in the trade/ movement of 80th slaves that's not actually the same thing. Not that it matters.

Then why point it out?

I'm Bristolian and I went to Colston's school. We were taught about the good he did in the city, his charity school (that now ironically costs a fortune) his links to the arts and that whilst the slave trader thing was regrettable he was mostly a good man. There was even a quaint story of a dolphin sticking its head through a hole in a sinking boat and thus saving his life. As a kid I was proud of my school's history.

It's all bullshit. I'm sure he wasn't a wholly despicable man, I'm sure he loved and was loved. But that doesn't matter, he sold human lives for a profit and lived so comfortably off of the proceeds that he was able to be the rich benefactor for his pet projects. No man who could sell human lives should be respected, should have roads named after him, should have music halls named after him or should be the basis of primary school assemblies.

Personally I'm glad the statue is down it should have come down years ago, I'm glad the Hall is being renamed. What the ships leaving Bristol did should never be forgotten but the way to do that is not to remember the names of the people who gave the orders. It is a bit like the way we remember the names of serial killers but not their victims.

Black lives matter.

White long dead slave traders don't.

I'm glad it's gone. Maybe saved the council the cost of removing it.

I think that the statue should have gone (you are preaching to the converted) but not in that way.

I think it will just inflame the opinions of those that the black community are trying to educate and make a terrible situation even worse.

I kind of hope a plaque remains. So people learn how slavery was so intertwined into the fabric of the town.

It is unbelievable that that statue was still standing.

I just googled Colston. Did you know, in the 12 years he was in charge of the British African Company 84000 black slaves were transported & at least 19000 died en route!!

Can not believe the statue stayed up that long!! Disgusting.

Apparently there had been a local campaign for decades to get the statue relocated to a local museum - unsuccessfully obviously. As a rule I'd rather not see historical objects thrown in the bin (or river), but it should have been placed/stored elsewhere.

I don't see how tearing down a statue glorifying a man is "erasing history".

Destroying Colstons statue and throwing it in the river, will have educated thousands more people about him and the slave trade, than the statue ever managed to, in its 125 years of existence.

I know that at @MilkTrayLimeBarrel is no longer here but I just want some to reflect on this sentence ..please indulge me

What do these black people want? For us British white people to lie down and let them take over our country?

Clearly implying that black people are not British because they are not white and even so...they dont belong in 'our country' and will 'take over'.

Yet black people are to blame for making she/he feel guilty

This ...this is the kind of shit I have to read everyday ...and the number of times you just read it randomly out of nowhere...people showing their true colours. It is so depressing, I used to think it was the minority that held views like this now I live in fear that most white british people feel like this and they've just been hiding it...that I dont belong just because of the colour of my skin. I'm mixed race which affords me a certain amount of privilege ...I would probably spend my life traumatised if both my parents were black .

Its mob rule and cowardly. Agree it should be removed but not by an out of control mob. They have beem defacing war memorials and cenotaph too. Apart from in Portsmouth where a line of forces and exforces personnel stood in front of the memorial and dared them to try. Needless to say, they didnt.

@june2007 it might actually be quite effective to leave the empty plinth where the statue stood and have an information board explaining the history.

"Erasing history" is surely putting up a statue of a murderer and not talking about the people he killed. Good riddance. As for people saying that this fight for civil liberties is happening at the wrong time or is inconvenient, well it doesn't work like that. Plus I think you'll find that it was your man with his knee on that chap's neck whose actions were faulty.

Deeds not words. It’s fantastic that they pulled the statue down and rolled it into the river. Maybe now a memorial to the slaves can be put up in its place.

Those of you excusing slavery because they were harder times are conveniently forgetting that many people campaigned for its abolition. People knew it was wrong.

It should be replaced by a commemoration to the sixty million and more who died as a direct and indirect result of the slave trade.

The racism black people continue to fight against to this day, that killed George Floyd and numerous other black American and European citizens, that is structurally embedded within the very fabric of our country and that of many others, is the residue of what Colston and his ilk did.

I for one am delighted that his repellent false idol is lying at the bottom of a dock.

Smile I can’t see a post where I’ve suggested that the slave trade is not linked to BAME and the structures they live in. In fact I’d argue the opposite.

I bet the council are glad it’s gone, probably they were pulled in both directions over it. I do wish they’d got rid of it ages ago though