Black statues of white racists

So what should we do with them?

I reckon that the one of Colston should be put back, but instead of being upright it should be lying down in a tank of Avon water, open to the elements and therefore full of scum.

I like the approach being considered by Edinburgh council- adding a plaque explaining the persons role in slavery.

It’s like adding a plaque to a site where witches were killed- we can keep the history without glorifying it.

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Sell them all to the highest bidder.

Have a solid reasonable inclusive discussion on who we actually want on podiums.

Build statues to Trainy mc train face and Robocop.

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Nurses who died by covid in each village, town and city

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The Colston statue, like slavery, belongs in a museum dedicated to remembering the past and educating for the future. Leaving it on public display will cause tension regardless of any plaques.

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Do what the Hungarians did with all their autocrats and despots and group them in specified locations with context applied.

See they also have a statue of columbo

I like them

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And Ronnie

into a museum with the lot of them. Erect statues of people that we can all get behind, not those that rich Victorians alone admired. Also consider some form of remembrance site for those affected by the slave trade. A plaque next to a statue of a slave trader doesn’t cut the mustard.

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More max bygraves

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Colston is currently in storage and eventually will go to a museum.

I’d take 'em down and put them in a history museum.

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I’d take down only those who sent an offensive tweet 7 years ago when they were a teenager.

Can’t be having anything anyone find offensive.

I’m torn. I think we should not try to rewrite history (these represent moments in time) and maybe just understand better what happened before us. Pretty much any statue is of someone who did something that could be challenged, it’s not as simple as just removing the lot.
I’m loathe to let those who set out to damage and rampage, win. Part of me thinks it’s more principled to leave them there and let people behave and debate, rather than react to the damage by hiding them all.

It’s an interesting one though. The debate is the important bit. Not what happens with the metalwork.

I wasn’t aware of this man until today. Sounds remarkable & the sort that should be remembered for the right rather than the wrong they did.

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I don’t think that plaques work. Bristol was debating for years exactly what the plaque should say, and it kept getting watered down.

What about a new museum of statues? I think it’s interesting who is honoured by these, it says a lot about a society over time. And of course, there would be full context about them.

Statues arent history

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They are!!!
So are buildings. So is art hung on walls. So are names of streets.
It’s all part of what we were as a society, and a representation of what occurred.
Moving them all doesn’t just make this right.

If I had kids I’d want to talk about statutes and monuments. Not hide them and pretend we were never Racist and that we didn’t celebrate different views in different eras.

They show how we have evolved and improved.

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I’ve certainly learnt a fair bit this week
I knew about Coulston, but not all the detail of the amount of deaths involved

I’m not sure we should allow the Victorians to rewrite history though. Their view of the world and the role of Empire is very questionable. For instance, the Colston narrative pre-1970 odd was of a Tory MP and philanthropist. The whole slave trading bit and the Royal Africa Company (digest this for a while the Royal Africa Company) didn’t really merit much of a mention.

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Would make a great Dr Who episode if they all became animated

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