Edward Colston: Statues are for heroes & heroines not zeroes
Kick Over the Statues for those unaware is the title of a song by the Redskins:
They had in mind the struggles of the time, the fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe and the end of apartheid in South Africa.
The wider point was clear however. Statues of the rich and powerful are swept away as popular movements arise to change the state of things.
The felling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston and its subsequent unloading into the harbour by Black Lives Matters protesters in Bristol on 7th June 2020 reminded, as if we should need reminding, that 2020 saw the arrival of a powerful, and worldwide movement against racism and injustice.
The felling of Confederate statues in America had some feel of this. A final settling of scores with a racist past that unsurprisingly the current President Trump would like to maintain.
In general kicking over the statues is a good idea, even from an historical angle. A US Democrat tweeted in 2017 that Confederate statues could be replaced with figures from the underground railroad that helped free slaves. Why not?
Does that mean that Confederates, the US South and racism or the history of the slave trade and slave traders in the UK should be white-washed from history as it were? Certainly not. Those times need to be remembered and understood historically. That is the role of museums and sometimes of plaques.
Meanwhile it is more than time that a statue of the black leader of London Chartism in 1848 William Cuffay, who was transported to Tasmania for righting for the right to vote for all, was erected in central London.
Statues are for heroes and heroines not zeros.
Good points, well made. Streets should be renamed as well, such as those of slave traders and racists. As, in many ways Glasgow leads the way.
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