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.

@GazeboParty

Lots of bad people did good things. Jimmy Saville - should we have a statue for him?

No - and if you'd read my post you'd see that was exactly my point. Lots of bad people do good things. They're still bad people.

@TooLittleTooLate80

But if they let themselves be silenced and don't take action then that is their decision.

Oh sweet Jesus....

I think the pp who called you appalling let you off lightly.

They are not judge and jury and I haven't done anything wrong so there is nothing for me to be 'let off lightly' for.

There are plenty of places in Bristol where the harm of slavery and Bristol's role is addressed in a way that educates and reflects. The statue and the places named after these men don't contribute to that.

1dayatatime, if anyone still suffers because of slavery at stone henge maybe we should. The statue wasn't pulled down because of generic slavery but because the attitude that white people are better or more deserving of life is still too prevalent 300 years later.

In this country we are in no position to criticise the Vikings for raping as part of conquest. It was used by the British army as a systematic tool in India less than 100 years ago.

@YinMnBlue - at what point was anything I said disgustingly and complacently racist? If you read my post in its entirety you will see that I said I was glad that the statue came down but that something else should replace it to highlight the complicity with the slave trade of much of Georgian Bristol - I suggested it was melted down and the metal used to make a memorial to the lives of those Colston and his contemporaries enslaved. My concern was to make sure that these lives were not forgotten. I'm really not sure how that is a racist standpoint?

I've never been to Bristol, or really know anything about it as a place, but when I read this story I was really disappointed that there was such statue. Surely it should have been pulled down decades ago?

There is a time for not following the rules and it takes courage. Pulling down that statue is historic, empowering and symbolic.

All the blind rule-followers are missing the point: Racism is part of the current rules. We need change!

Nellydean - not sure if Ireland is a good example of decent behaviour - the Irish were neutral and didn't oppose Hitler - left that to the Allies, while ensuring that almost no Jewish refugees reached Eire.

This isn’t the way to protest though. Committing criminal damage, injury to police officers, aggressive actions, creating situations in a pandemic where the virus could be easily spread, doing exactly what millions of people have not done, often at great personal cost to themselves and their families. No matter what you are protesting about all of these things undermines the message. If you want people to hear a message which presumably is exactly what the protestors want, then you don’t give people any ammunition to detract away from what you are trying to say. I’m afraid when I see footage all I keep seeing is a bunch of thugs creating civil unrest (most of whom probably don’t care what the cause they’re marching for is) it is drowning out the tremendously important message that we really should be hearing.

Now how about doing something for modern slaves?

I’m afraid when I see footage all I keep seeing is a bunch of thugs creating civil unrest (most of whom probably don’t care what the cause they’re marching for is) it is drowning out the tremendously important message that we really should be hearing.

Agreed.

@WitchQueenofDarkness

Now how about doing something for modern slaves?

I doubt it'll happen, people will turn a blind eye.

The suffragettes caused billions of pounds worth of damage in order to win us the vote, for basic human rights. Shit like this needs to happen for people to take note.
I too felt emotional at pulling down the statue, both sadness that it wasn’t done sooner by those in charge and pride in the generations of black people and allies unwilling to let acts of injustice slide. It was symbolic and powerful.

Don't worry there's plenty of other reminders all over the city which make it hard to forget its connections to the slave trade. The nails, the old docks, Seven Stars. We're not rewriting history, it's very much still there and we don't need to look at that smug cunt's face anymore.

I actually found it really funny. I don't know if that's a normal reaction to have but me and DH watched the video and couldn't stop laughing. It's a stupid statue that shouldn't be there anyway and it made lots of people happy and justified for a few moments when it hit the water. The way they rolled it in and it hits the water, I just found it hilarious

All the blind rule-followers are missing the point: Racism is part of the current rules. We need change!

Yes!

Everyone is saying it's wrong to pull down a statue of a white man who persecuted black people because of rules white people decided on.

Did they consult the ancestors of slaves who lived in Bristol before they erected it?
Or did they decided black voices didnt matter?

It should not have been standing in the first place.

Instead of pulling down the statue of a man who died 300 years ago, how about calling out some prominent racists who are very much alive and kicking? Remember Nigel Farage and his 'Breaking Point' advert'? I don't recollect seeing many white faces on that advert. Or how about Boris and his well documented racist 'gaffs'; the same man who has recently won a landslide election. Surely nobody posting their wrath on here voted for him? What a strange, contradictory nation we are.

I think several letters have been sent to the council over the years. To no avail, clearly.

Petitions! Ha! What good do they do? In this day and age. The UK is no longer a democracy.

It'll be the usual priviliged middle-class white lefties that did it

Blacks wouldn't dare. Plod would be on them with tazers and dogs at the first sign of a rope

Don't be fucking ridiculous.

@Rowantree2020

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

What should have happened then? A referendum on the matter? And hope the racists don’t win like they did in the last one.

Ok I see why people wanted him to go, But this is not the way. It,s mob rule and does not help the BLM course .

No social distancing there was there.

This event will go down in history and will be far more of an ‘education’ than the statue standing there proudly with nothing attached to enlighten people.

I agree with those who say leave the statues up and make them a point of education. It could be a national campaign. Paint 'blood' on their hands and hang a sign from them to explain why it's unacceptable.

That statue should not have been there.
I'm glad it's gone.
There's a lot of whataboutery on this thread (as usual). This wasn't about modern slavery it was about the roots of racism in our society.
That man made his money through buying and selling men, women and children. It all looked pretty peaceful to me.