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.

@Freddie28

I am totally against slavery, but he was part of history, the plaque could have been changed to make it more relevant to the 21st century, explaining the good, the bad and the ugly.

It is criminal damage at the end of the day. Imagine what would happen if Nelson Mandela's statue was removed i the same way, to some he was a terrorist, regardless of the amazing work he went on to do.

Wow. You realise he was only considered a terrorist by twats... specifically because of the amazing work he did- not ‘alongside’ the amazing work he did.

There is no respectful comparison to be made.

That vile statue should never have been torn down by protesters because it should never have been there still... the council should have taken it down years ago, and put it in a museum. Shame on the council.

To the my now attackers, that came out wrong. I'm not not was I trying to be arrogant, I'm just pissed off.

The man spent a small portion of his life doing wrong, but so much more of his life doing good. The doing good was after the slave trading.

Bristol is an amazing city, and lots of that is down to Ed. I'm not blinded by his good deeds, it's just I'm not like others focused on just his early life and bad deeds.

To try to wipe.out ed and his memory, is an affront to Bristol, and to the slave trade as a whole.

I just hate that such vandalism is smiled on by so many of you. Are smiling at the graphiti on the cenotaph, or Churchill's statue?

I have never, and will never condone what happened back then. I just don't think what was done was not only not the right way to do it, but also wrong to insult so many Bristolians.

This could've and should've been done properly.

Bristol is an amazing city, and lots of that is down to Ed.
Aww, lovely Ed! 🙄

George Floyd was a human being with family. A statue is an inanimate object. you are getting worked up about the wrong thing.

The man spent a small portion of his life doing wrong, but so much more of his life doing good

We're not talking about someone who evaded taxes we are talking about mass murder and torture. Just for the record he didn't apologise and give all his money to the families of his victims did he?

To have a statue of someone erected is to honour that person and their achievements. Tearing it down is NOT “airbrushing history” as some have said. School children in Bristol are taught about significant historical local figures (it isn’t all about Brunel you know!). The past is taught. The unsavoury bits are not airbrushes out or glossed over. We have a city museum which is free and has regular exhibitions on slavery. But we should not be honouring someone who made money from kidnapping and selling people! Keeping the statue is a kick in the face to black Bristolians. What message does this give? “Sorry but frankly it doesn’t matter that we are honouring someone who profited by selling black people as slaves. Is that offensive? Well, it was history. So there. Suck it up. No one cares what you think anyway!” FFS.

Jimmy Saville did lots for charity you know!!! Statue anyone? No..???

@MacBlank

FFS

Ed was more than just a slave trader. He made more money doing other stuff. All his money is what built Bristol.

2 of its top schools, the suspension bridge, hospitals, universities, plus.lots lots more.

He spent just 11 years as a trader. They also say he would have lost more ships hands than the slaves.

All this was almost 300 years ago, and after (for whatever reason) he stopped doing the slave trade, he put his money into building Bristol.

People act like all he ever did, was the slave trade. What he did was transport slaves from Bristol to America's. They were already here (so to speak).

The slave trade was a nasty part of history, that should never be forgotten. Ironically, with his statue gone from his plinth, it's not going to be talked about so much. Cos there won't be the statue to start people thinking and talking about what happened back then.

It was a sad part of Britain's history, that many major players at them time were involved in, including several kings.

His statue was vandalised and disgracefully thrown into the harbour, by people jumping on the march.

I saw this post and had hoped it was a Bristolian saddened by what happened, like so many people in the city. Sadly, it's another person jumping on the bandwagon, and not knowing much about the whole.pereon.

Going by your logic, we should all start thinking about the great things Jimmy Savile did- all his charity work and fundraising. After all, he did more than just sexually abuse children.

And why are you saying ‘all this happened 300 years ago’? What’s your point? That we shouldn’t be pissed off as it happened 300 years ago?

You refer to the slave trade as ‘sad’. Shame on you. Get a grip.

And as for people not talking about it as much because the statue has been tossed into the river... that’s a load of nonsense. There’s already 37 pages of discussion on this thread alone.

And as for people not talking about it as much because the statue has been tossed into the river... that’s a load of nonsense. There’s already 37 pages of discussion on this thread alone.

Exactly! I'd never even heard of the fucker before this. Now everybody has and will see where 'democracy' gets you.

The procession of people coming on here to defend a mass murderer of black people 'because it wasn't the whole person and he did some good stuff too' underlines that racism remains a huge problem, and why things need to change.

That said, I suspect macblank is on a wind-up. I can't believe that anyone who can use a computer can also be that ignorant and tone-deaf.

@MacBlank

To the my now attackers, that came out wrong. I'm not not was I trying to be arrogant, I'm just pissed off.

The man spent a small portion of his life doing wrong, but so much more of his life doing good. The doing good was after the slave trading.

Bristol is an amazing city, and lots of that is down to Ed. I'm not blinded by his good deeds, it's just I'm not like others focused on just his early life and bad deeds.

To try to wipe.out ed and his memory, is an affront to Bristol, and to the slave trade as a whole.

I just hate that such vandalism is smiled on by so many of you. Are smiling at the graphiti on the cenotaph, or Churchill's statue?

I have never, and will never condone what happened back then. I just don't think what was done was not only not the right way to do it, but also wrong to insult so many Bristolians.

This could've and should've been done properly.

Seriously? You hate people smiling about the vandalism of an offensive statue?

And yet you can’t understand why people hate the fact that you are choosing to focus on the merits of a slave trader and choosing to prioritise that over supporting and discussing the merits of the protest against systemic racism.

Tell us about your views on racism. Tell us what you’re going to do to address racism... express some genuine sadness for the lives affected by racism, before you tell us how sad you are about a statue.

Can you not hear yourself?

Im not defending a 300yrs dead white man or his stupid statue.

I’m defending the BAME doctors and nurses who lives have been flippantly gambled with by privileged white people breaking lockdown during a pandemic so they can assuage their white guilt for slavery by gathering in infectious crowds to have a street party and vandalise a statue.

The argument that because it was a statue of a bad dead white man doesn’t make it right to risk the lives of BAME doctors and nurses p, several of whom will probably end up dying to save these idiots who have caught and spread Covid while mobbing around the streets of Bristol having a grand old time.

What’s next? An old book burning and BBQ? If black lives really mattered to the protesters, then they would not have risked them so flagrantly.

I feel emotional at the fact that obviously no life matters. We are in the middle of a pandemic and it is blatantly obvious nobody really understands what this means. London, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh Protestors all observing social distancing? Do people think these ill fitting masks will protect them? .
Let's hope that in two weeks time we are not all having to do more than clap for the NHS due to knock on effect. So much for keeping it safe.
Equality is worth fighting for agreed. But really let's hope that ripping down a statue of somebody who died years ago and who is probably walked past everyday and not even noticed,doesn't become a symbol of the loss of more people's lives potentially alot of them who did not even attend any of these protests. If this does happen then every person that is identified in my mind should be held accountable as it is no better than what the slave trader did!!!

The protesters actions demonstrate that erasing centuries old reminders of white guilt is more important than protecting black lives today.

They’ve hijacked BLM with their white privilege and centered themselves.

I’m angry that many of you do not get this. I’m tired of being accused of defending what’s his face the very bad white man because I think tearing down the statue was pointless, meaningless, and wildly irresponsible endangerment of BAME lives.

@amoobaa you’re somewhat behind in the thread. I could rehearse all the arguments again but honestly people keep joining this threat and just repeating the same points. Maybe read the whole thread before wading in.

PlanDeRaccordement I don't think your jibe at 'privileged white people' is fair. First, if you look at the videos of the statue going in the drink (I won't bother posting links; they're easy to find) there are plenty of black faces and I think the guys actually doing the final honours are black.

There seems to be a suggestion in your post that any white people on a BLM protest are virtue signalling, and I don't think that's fair. We can't know their true motivations, of course, but if there were no white people at this kind of event then people would be citing that as evidence that they don't care.

The covid situation is my one reservation about this whole business, though you could argue that it's the US police's fault for triggering global race riots by murdering a black man on video during lockdown. The police are certainly more culpable in my eyes than the protestors.

Well there are loads more statues and monuments that are in memory of people who did bad things. What about Oliver Cromwell? The crimes and murder he committed against Irish people were appalling. Are we going to tear them all down? Where do you stop and draw the line with this?

I’m tired of being accused of defending what’s his face the very bad white man because I think tearing down the statue was pointless, meaningless, and wildly irresponsible endangerment of BAME lives.

We'll stop fucking defending him then

Very telling that you said you're defending him, not the statue. Qwhite interesting.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Im not defending a 300yrs dead white man or his stupid statue.

I’m defending the BAME doctors and nurses who lives have been flippantly gambled with by privileged white people breaking lockdown during a pandemic so they can assuage their white guilt for slavery by gathering in infectious crowds to have a street party and vandalise a statue.

The argument that because it was a statue of a bad dead white man doesn’t make it right to risk the lives of BAME doctors and nurses p, several of whom will probably end up dying to save these idiots who have caught and spread Covid while mobbing around the streets of Bristol having a grand old time.

What’s next? An old book burning and BBQ? If black lives really mattered to the protesters, then they would not have risked them so flagrantly.

That’s so fucking patronising. Have you not bothered to listen to the many black people who clearly stated their reasons for taking the calculated risks in order to attend the protests? Or do you think you know better and can talk for them?

I’m a front line NHS worker and I will not stand in the way of anyone protesting.

Covid kills. Yes.

But you think institutional racism doesn’t kill?

And you’re completely ignoring the thousands of people’s who protested whilst maintaining social distancing.

What you choose to focus on says a lot about you.

You are incredibly offensive describing protesters simply ‘Having a grand old time’.

You don’t take any of this seriously at all.

Therefore you are part of the problem, not the solution.

twitter.com/JohnBoyega/status/1269991401527312386?s=20

with by privileged white people breaking lockdown during a pandemic so they can assuage their white guilt for slavery by gathering in infectious crowds to have a street party and vandalise a statue.

I don't think Cummings chose to break the lockdown because he was trying to assuage any guilt. He was just looking after number 1. What about all those people out having jollies on VE day? I don't think that was guilt assuaging either.

[quote Rowantree2020]@amoobaa you’re somewhat behind in the thread. I could rehearse all the arguments again but honestly people keep joining this threat and just repeating the same points. Maybe read the whole thread before wading in.[/quote]
I’m not interested in trawling through the thread to satisfy you.

You made a statement and I found it offensive, so I decided to respond specifically to that statement. I don’t care what else you wrote.

You prefer to belittle me by ignoring my comments and branding them as ‘wading in’. That says more about you than it does about me.

Bristol is an amazing city, and lots of that is down to Ed.

Ed
FFS lol

What does it take to wipe out the evil stain of 20,000 dead, and how many enslaved? How much gold and benefit delivered to the Mother country?

I also don't understand why you're erasing the BAME people from your narrative of the protest.