People are worried about the safety of statues everywhere since the Colston* one was hurled into the harbour, now retrieved.
People had asked for its respectful removal for years however no one bothered to listen. There was talk of amending the plaque with a few added words, a half-hearted gesture at best and one that fell disappointingly flat.
Walking by a slave trader put on a pedestal and venerated every day must be agonising for anyone who feels the effects of racist views personally and indeed for anyone at all aware of them whether or not directly affected.
WHY ARE PEOPLE SO AFRAID OF MORE STATUES BEING TORN DOWN?
Is it only because of the anarchic behaviour or is there a deeper fear?
I hear you, you say it’s history ... in which case surely we should add a few more, political, social and cultural figures, of those who in their time were influential and cheered ... we could name a few but I hear you say that would be in bad taste.
And I hear you; you say it teaches people history ... so let’s think about the way in which that history is being taught. How people are learning about history whilst on a walk to work or back home, learning while more and more anger and outrage build up because no one has really learned anything, anything at all.
~ Anger and outrage not only due to the acceptance but to the veneration of people throughout history that have abused or been void of essential human values in order to achieve their ambition.
Do we need a statue that stands as a tribute and sign of respect to teach us about history? Do books and all present media not suffice?
For that is what a statue is: a tribute, a sign of respect not just for what a person has said or done but for what he/she stands for.
And I hear you, there is good and there is bad.
But what does it tell us when charitable works benefiting some are only at the expense of the lives of those regarded as nothing more than a sub-race?
WHAT DOES IT TELL US when it turns out that a venerated figure, one after another, after another and another held racist and/or fascist views... ?
That’s where the fear lies: In exactly what it tells us.
Please listen to this poem: It is as wonderfully insightfully visual as it is profound. All would do well to view the world from its angle if only for the sake of change:
* “Since the late twentieth century Edward Colston (1636- 1721) has been a controversial figure in Bristol's history, because of his membership of the governing body of the Royal African Company, which made its profits from trading in enslaved Africans.” Wikepedia.
What it doesn’t say is that many of these slaves for one reason or another were thrown overboard and never reached shore. So though his charitable works may indeed have benefited some, it was at the expense of human lives ... #BLACK LIVES MATTER
