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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel emotional at the slave trader statue

999 replies

Millicent10 · 07/06/2020 16:58

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.

OP posts:
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5
thedancingbear · 07/06/2020 18:30

^ How silencing is that for black people to walk past every day for 125 years

Only if they let it silence them.^

So pollykettles if BAME people are upset by the statue, it's their fault?

You really are the most appalling specimen.

Brefugee · 07/06/2020 18:31

Finally! And now maybe they'll change the name of Colston hall and Colston school (or have they already?)

We need to talk about these things and make it clear what they are and why they need to go, otherwise how will things ever change?

The removal of this statue and other related issues has been going on, politely, for a long time. Sometimes direct action is the way to go and I think, all in all, this is a fitting way for that statue to go.

1forsorrow · 07/06/2020 18:32

I wish they'd move all controversial statues and put them in museums- why have them displayed in public to rub their awful history in people's faces? And Cromwell.

caperberries · 07/06/2020 18:33

Rather than pulling down statues and attempting to erase history, why not focus on campaigning for reparations for the ancestors of the victims of slavery?

Glowcat · 07/06/2020 18:33

A very suitable target for protesters. About time it went.

user1471565182 · 07/06/2020 18:33

awww man they should have melted it down

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 07/06/2020 18:34

The fact that the statue was still standing in the first place is the real outrage about this story. OK so mob rule is not the right way to go about things (and wouldn't have needed to be, had prior petitions been acted upon). I don't, as a rule, condone criminal damage. But am I sorry this piece of unpleasant history has been treated with the contempt it deserves, and made an example of something not to be proud of?

Not on your nelly.

MadameMinimes · 07/06/2020 18:34

Not that I saw... I know there’s a museum on the Westman Islands that deals with it though. We weren’t able to visit the Westman islands in the end so didn’t visit it.

Smilethoyourheartisbreaking · 07/06/2020 18:35

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IpanemaGallina · 07/06/2020 18:35

I’m glad it has gone - hopefully forever.

MadameMinimes · 07/06/2020 18:35

My attempt to quote pottykettles failed.

MadameBee · 07/06/2020 18:35

Statues in general are actually pretty horrible and scary, was always scared of them as a kid.

Smilethoyourheartisbreaking · 07/06/2020 18:37

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YinMnBlue · 07/06/2020 18:37

"but am concerned that removing traces of Colston could be a bit like "airbrushing" out the bits of history we don't like"

I have managed well enough to understand the history of the rise of the Nazis and what they did without gazing on a statue of Hitler.

Only if they let it silence them

Why should people living in a racist society have to take on the extra emotional and psychological burden to hold their heads high when they see slave traders agrandised in their civic environment?

Jimmy Savile was a 'philanthropist'. Should his statue be put up in a town square somewhere? Should people who were sexually abused walk past struggling to 'not allow' themselves to be silenced?

I knikew Colston was a trader of enslaved African people. I didn;t need a statue to know that.

I am bloody glad of these threads however, where so many people are revealing themselves as complacent (at best) in the face of racism and oppression.

It shows how far we have to go.

CrazyTimesAreOccurring · 07/06/2020 18:37

@donquixotedelamancha

Colostomy primary school changed its name a couple of years ago.

I'm not surprised, that's a terrible name for a school.

Grin Grin
NearlyGranny · 07/06/2020 18:39

Rowantree 2020, where will all this direct action lead?

Terrible, terrible places, like, ooh, votes for women, perhaps? Legalisation of trade unions? Abolition of the slave trade?

Things that clearly should have waited until the people with the power felt like yielding them, or Hell froze over, whichever happened first. 😏

Smilethoyourheartisbreaking · 07/06/2020 18:41

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LightenUpSummer · 07/06/2020 18:42

I'm Bristolian and I bloody love my city, so pleased about this.

I hope Colston Hall and the school are renamed too. I thought Colston Hall's refurbishment was finished a while back though?

YinMnBlue · 07/06/2020 18:42

Rather than pulling down statues and attempting to erase history, why not focus on campaigning for reparations for the ancestors of the victims of slavery?

  1. The point is not to erase history (FFS, how does pulling down a statue erase history? You can learn history without looking at statues) but to highlight history by not to agrandise the people who did terrible things.
  2. It is possible to campaign for justice for the descendents of enslaved people without obliging them to walk past the man who did what he did. You can do both. It isn't either / or.
Sophiafour · 07/06/2020 18:43

I live fairly near Bristol and, like many major cities, its built on the back of things we now see (well, some of us) as utterly abhorrent. Just like Glasgow, Manchester, parts of Birmingham, and certainly London. There has been debate about Bristol's approach to Colston for at least a decade, as it doesn't fit well with the city's overall relatively inclusive, progressive stance on most things.

I don't think a revisionist approach to history is the answer, though. I agree with the pp who said that sticking such things in a museum or somewhere with an explanation might be an option or melting the dratted things down and having something more appropriate or inclusive in their place. I'd also be in favour of a small plaque on the original site if those decisions were taken.

Attitudes change all the time, but sometimes it's a very slow process. I do a little editorial work, and while it's not my area of expertise, some of the other editors are very clear about the fact historical texts and memoirs in particular can prove tricky. The best approach I've seen recently was a paragraph at the start of the work that said something along the lines of "This work is a product of its time. Contemporary readers may find some of the attitudes and approaches portrayed incompatible with present-day approaches".

I'm also fairly sure that the future will judge us and many of our attitudes very harshly. Things that are now taken for granted, like animal cruelty when it comes to much of the food chain, our wilful blindness to environmental change, and our pursuit of materialism at all cost, and our willingness to look the other way in the light of modern slavery (still, as long as those crops get picked and those cars get washed, those accessory babies get nannied to sleep and so on, eh) are likely to feature fairly high up the list of "What the *ing he** were they thinking? WERE they even thinking?"

Still, history's written by the winners....

(And no, I'm not implying everyone with a nanny has "accessory children", I've known those where their jobs or personal circumstances meant they had to have a nanny and the children were very much wanted. I've also encountered people who seem to see their kids as the walking, talking equivalent of a designer handbag they can pose with for publicity purposes.)

Eskarina1 · 07/06/2020 18:44

His actions helped strip the descendants of slaves of their family names and their connection to their culture and history. It is not right that his name has such a central place in our local history. He's achieved a kind of immortality.

That letter from Colston Girls School sums up for me why the statue needs to come down. 90% of it was about all the wonderful things he did and then a small, minimising comment about how, yeah, his ships were among those that transported slaves, bit unfortunate that.

We don't need to paint over our history but we can stop giving honours to people who knowingly participated in the brutal enslavement of tens of thousands for their own profit.

Sophiafour · 07/06/2020 18:44

And yes, grammar upholders, I know it should be "it's" in that first sentence.

GazeboParty · 07/06/2020 18:46

We all know who Colston is now though - no need for whitewashing - I think loads of people are googling his history now!

AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter · 07/06/2020 18:49

I'm so happy its down! Absolutely disgusted its been allowed to stay up for so long though.

Good riddance!

CoquettishIngenue · 07/06/2020 18:51

As much as I support the BLM movement, I do not support the criminal damage, violence and animal cruelty some people have resorted to to get the point across.