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.

The thing I’ve found in Bristol particularly is that it’s full of so many liberal do gooders who would support pulling this statue down...yet half of the ones I’ve met are the most entitled, privileged people out there who know that they can quite happily slum around and go to protests and talk about being green because as old Jarvis said, one call to Daddy would stop it all.

The hardest experience a lot of these people that I’ve met have had was choosing whether to start their gap year in China or Peru....but because they’ve had some experience holidaying, ahem, volunteering at a school full of poor children in another country and plastered that experience all over social media...they feel they understand the hardships of certain people in society...when the reality is they haven’t got a clue.

I think it getting tiresome that the death of one person who should never have died in the circumstances which he did, has been the catalyst for such division and destruction. It really shows how damaging social media is it both in terms of bringing together people to conduct criminal acts (destroying statues, throwing fireworks/cycles etc) and in terms of spreading mis information. The general populations grasp of history and of statistics is shocking. Where does this end?

The statues going to be fished out of the river, that's a fact. Colstons statue should then be melted down and and be turned into a memorial for BLM, taking Edward Colstons place.

I wouldn’t liken Colston to Hitler...slavery was socially acceptable in those days.
I think you'll find that there was a time that Hitler was extremely socially acceptable and much hailed, in Germany.

Whilst it made me shudder as it looked so dangerous, I think it's great. We've been trying to get rid of it for ages! It's not on to keep a statue in such a prominent, therefore reverred position. He had a choice, he chose to make his money in a foul and immoral way. There was much opposition at the time.
He was known as a great philanthropist. Yes, there are schools (was 3, now 2) and buildings named after him, and he left a lot to the city. HOWEVER...
Bristol residents will have definitely paid more in reparations(paid to slave traders) through tax than he gave the city. In fact, the UK taxpayer only stopped paying (loans taken out) to compensate the slave traders in 2015! This means that descendants of slaves transported to the Caribbean who came to live in Britain (many Bristol residents) were contributing to pay back loans for reparations!

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..

Thankfully we are not all like that.

The statues going to be fished out of the river, that's a fact. Colstons statue should then be melted down and and be turned into a memorial for BLM, taking Edward Colstons place.

This.

You went to school in the 1990s and nobody taught you about the history of slavery...that’s the point isn’t it?! Had you walked past that statue in the 1990s and asked about it, perhaps you might have learned something...not just about slavery but about Bristol.

We know all about Cromwell in Ireland. Genocide attempts that kill nearly 620K people tend to be a major part of our schooling.

Cromwell didn't genocide 620k people though. That was my whole point.

Churchill didn't gas Kurds either but countless memes say he did

The Irish were never slaves, but millions of Americans are convinced they were

I mean maybe your thinking that there were so many over the centuries that we wouldn't know about all of them, and you are right, most people don't. But we fucking know about that evil bastard.

Ive studied Cromwell. Can you provide a reliable source for your claims please

Should they be torn down?

No

I think you'll find that there was a time that Hitler was extremely socially acceptable and much hailed, in Germany.

And in the UK. A lot of the upper classes rewrote their personal histories pretty smartish at the beginning of the War.

Wouldn't be surprised if schools, cathedrals and universities were built partially from the wealth of slave traders. However the protestors aren't pulling them down

This is a statue built to commemorate a person, not a building that he paid for. There's a huge difference. The statue offers nothing to the society, it is a way of honouring the person it represents. It honours a man whose actions were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands, including children.

As others have said we would tear down a statue of Jimmy saville (I think we have). Would we tear down a hospital he paid for? Probably not.

Why srop at the statue?
Bristol should be brought tonite knees. Thereis moreless fuck all in Bristol that isnt there because of or in some wsy linked to tge slave trade.
We could start with doing away with the controversial charity fund he funded manyboeoolw still benefit from today.

The Colston Bun, The Colton Hall, The Colston Almshouses all need to go. They could smash the windows on Bristol Cathedral, destroy several schools, riot in every street named Colston (there's quite a few in Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire)

We also need to rename Blackboy Hill and Whiteladies Road.

Then destroy The Wills Memorial Building at Bristol University, Goldney Hall, rename all of the Elton named Streets.

And that's not even the tip of the iceberg!

I think it getting tiresome that the death of one person who should never have died in the circumstances which he did, has been the catalyst for such division and destruction
While the protests may have been sparked by one man's death, they are as much (probably more) about the systemic racism that lead to that death (and the deaths and oppression of countless others).

I'm sorry that's 'tiring' for you

I'd suggest that you dont really have a problem with the division, because racial division has always been there. What you're seemingly objecting to is people rallying against division.

I don't think renaming Blackboy Hill and Whiteladies Road is the worst idea I've ever heard.

It's obviously silly suggesting tearing down buildings that have a function. But no reason to keep a statue of someone who was a slave trader, what function does it possibly serve apart from causing hurt?

Pulling down statues will do sweet FA and only alienate those people who are supposed to be sympathetic.

Those who are supposed to be. If you have to suppose them to be, then they are not

Should they be torn down?

No

But they were built by slaves. They are symbolic of slave labour. They offend the descendants of those slaves. They are racist

(I'm not arguing they should be torn down either BTW, I'm just playing devils advocate)

@Cakecakes2011 but it isn't the point. The statue existed then and I still wasn't taught about slavery. This is because it's black history and in the 1990s clearly wasn't deemed significant enough to be on the curriculum. It's a racist thing not a lack of statue thing.

Believe me if there were a statue of some slave trader in my home town I still wouldn't have been taught about the west African slave trade. I am sure of that.

If anyone is alienated by the pulling down of this statue then I doubt they were massively sympathetic in the first place.

Weren’t some of the slaves sold to the slave traders by their own people?

All people have done here is make it easier for that to be forgotten...which teaches our children nothing.

You're right Cakecakes2011 the statue should've been left up with a massive sign hung round it's neck saying 'Murdering racist piece of shit' and a rat shoved up his cock.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Interesting article on the subject here:

www.npr.org/2018/04/09/600761800/iraqi-who-toppled-saddam-hussein-statue-15-years-ago-regrets-his-action?t=1591566538055

I somewhat agree with you, however the gist of my point remains: Literally no one talked about how future generations would be deprived of the opportunity for future educational edification by it's removal.

Neither does it apoear to have prevented anyone from discussing, learning or reporting about Saddam Hussein, or the Iraq war.

It’s about time the legitimacy of all statues were reviewed...

Let's keep Sir William Roscoe's statue though

Weren’t some of the slaves sold to the slave traders by their own people?

And?

This isn’t the way to resolve things in a democracy. Where does this kind of direct action end?

400 years of doing things the “right way” hasn’t exactly worked has it?

My Bristolian relatives are extremely happy that finally the removal of a statue agrandising a slaver and murderer has gone. Public opinion in Bristol has supported this for ages whilst Colston's supporters blocked it with endless whatabouteries.

Melt it down, put something in memoriam of the mass murders which funded Colston and his ilk.