It turns out that it was a friend of mine who was one of the people who pulled down the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. He is white and his wife (who struck a pose on the vacant plinth afterwards) is black. It looks as though they have sparked a world-wide trend to compel other authorities to remove memorials to slavers before they are forcibly removed by someone else.
Bristol is built on sugar, spices and tobacco. Many Northern towns were built on cotton. The British Empire was sustained by slavery and subjugation. The Tate gallery was built on sugar. The British Museum was built on subjugation.
Should I feel guilty about the slave trade? Should the grandchildren of Nazis feel guilty about the holocaust? Personally, no, but nationally, yes. To say that the first African people to be sold into slavery were sold to us by other Africans is no excuse. That's the moral equivalent of saying that you were only carrying out orders. The Windrush scandal shows that there are still a lot of officials who will carry out orders to the letter, so we must be careful what orders we give.
I think there will be a museum of slavery in Bristol soon, and the damaged bronze Colston will be one of the first exhibits.
After Samuel Johnson's wife died, a well-meaning friend 'gave' him Frances Barber as a slave. Johnson immediately upgraded his status to a manservant and shortly afterwards proclaimed him to be a friend and companion. He commissioned the portrait above, and when he died in 1784, he left his entire estate to Barber.
I can think of worse heroes to have.
It's an amazing movement.
ReplyDeleteThat is all from me.
It could have gone in a different direction in terms of civil unrest, but I see this as positive. If it were not for George Floyd's killing, they would have sent in the police with riot shields. They have now removed the statue of Baden-Powell because of his fascistic leanings. I always thought that putting boys in uniforms and tents was a bad idea.
DeleteI will ad the caveat that I hope it doesn't get out of hand. Some radical is now saying that Nelson should be removed from his column! I think enough is enough and the point has been made now. The London I love would be unrecognisable - every influential white person had some sort of connection to the slave trade at one point.
DeleteThey have removed Baden Powell's statue as a temporary precaution to avoid it being damaged. At the moment they intend putting it back at a later date.
ReplyDeleteOh. Not in a museum then? I suppose he wasn't involved in slavery. He wouldn't get away with a title like 'Scouting for Boys' these days.
DeleteNo doubt some new group of people will tell us what they would like the title to be.
ReplyDeleteSo far we have not had any book-burners taking to the streets. As far as I can see the people who did take to the streets in Bristol did not want to change or ignore history, just the opposite in fact. You may disagree with their methods, but I can tell you for fact that my friend and his wife are thoughtful and peaceful people who were fed-up with walking past a memorial to a slaver which had been promised to be removed a long time ago. They just got the job done for the council.
DeleteThe Girl Guides kind of evens things up. But I wonder if somebody will now find something un-savoury in the Brownies.
ReplyDeleteThe brown of their uniforms is no accident. They stopped short of calling themselves 'Brownshirts'. Will that do?
DeleteIt is known and documented that Baden Powell was a homophobic, a racist, and an enthusiastic support of Hitler.
ReplyDeleteI just heard a man (born in Barbados) saying that Nelson should be taken down from his column in Trafalgar Square because he may have supported slave shipping. Now that's just going too far! I hope it doesn't get out of hand and I hope we don't replace these figures with people like Nelson Mandela for instance. It would be like Soviet Russia.
DeleteI think there would be very few people in history who would be judged accptable by the mores of today if examined too closely. We cannot change the past, only learn from it. In the same way, students refusing to study aspects of history and literature because it offends their sensibilities is just ridiculous. Will they be boycotting the Tate and British Museum, and all the other great institutions?
ReplyDeleteDo they refuse to study aspects of history? I thought they confined themselves to barring speakers who they disagreed with - plus object to the odd statue of famous old boys or patrons.
DeleteStudents now require advance warning of the content of books they will be studying - apparently this even extends to some students of religion who are studying the Bible because there is violence in there which they can't/don't want to be exposed to.
DeleteThis will affect the study of religious art, everything. The 'Head of John the Baptist on a plate' paintings will surely be locked away, too gruesome! Rape & pillage - won't study it because it was wrong. This is happening in our uiversities now!
Really? I would check the facts before I spread this news. It sounds like the usual bollocks to me, but I could be wrong. I hope I am, though rich students are able to create their own courses and curriculii if they pay enough money to the university. I thought it was the NUS causing the snowflake mentality.
DeleteDidn't you see Dawkins on this re the Oxford SU a few weeks ago? If you search 'trigger warnings' you'll see what I mean.
DeleteCan I add, I have no problem at all with the use of trigger warnings in the teaching of younger children, where something coming up in class might trigger some very unpleasant memories. My problem is solely with older students of university age who have chosen a particular course, which would normally mean studying the subject from all angles, but then want reserve the right to opt out of particular elements of that course. In the case of the Oxford students they, no doubt, see themselves as the leaders of the future, and yet they are arguing for a very selective view of their subject.
DeleteThanks veggie, I will look it up.
DeleteI read too - as the veg artist says - that American students asked for being warned about some parts in literature (though I have forgotten which universities - plural - were asked to.) So ridiculous! If you are a scientist - and at university that should be your aim - you have to look at things - whether they please you or not.
DeleteJust one topic, relating to the teaching of rape law. Not a nice subject, I know, but any student who has committed to the course should know the curriculum and be prepared to learn what is judged necessary for the profession.
Deletehttps://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/12/17/harvard-law-professor-says-requests-trigger-warnings-limit-education-about-rape-law
https://www.legalcheek.com/2016/05/top-barrister-slams-delicate-oxford-flowers-as-unis-law-faculty-orders-trigger-warnings-before-lectures-about-violent-cases/
As Britta says, the study of literature throws up all sorts of issues. Think of some Shakespeare characters!
I will shut up on this subject now!!
It's all very interesting. Thank you for the information.
DeleteHaving read the above 2 articles I would say that I would not want to be represented in court by a lawyer who walked out of lectures when a student because of warnings about graphic content!
DeleteOf course it'll get out of hand, that started at the weekend when they abused the likes of Churchill's statue. They also carried out mass civil disobedience by ignoring social distancing rules and risking yet more unnecessary deaths from Corvid-19. It should also be noted that Nelson Mandela was quite happy for his name to be associated with Cecil Rhodes and yet that's another statue on the hit list.
ReplyDeleteThe lot that vandalised Churchill's statue were just that - vandals, or Anarchists at best. I tried to dissuade my grandson from attending the one in Bristol, but they're young - under 70. Nelson Mandela had a job to do. He had already been through his stroppy stage.
DeleteAnarchists will always climb on the train of dissent, be it political or any other cause. There is a just cause here but considering it is bound up with colonalism and how are country got rich on the back of others there is no answer. Will they get Raleigh next?
ReplyDeleteand how 'our' country got rich.
DeleteThey would get him for tobacco (bad for you) and potatoes (obesity), once the NHS has been freed up. I joke, of course, but the current backlash is seen as left wing. There could be a right wing reaction.
DeleteI hope many of you heard the black Baroness who is shortly to take up a top job at Oxford when she spoke on BBC Breakfast this morning. An inspiration and a voice of reason.
ReplyDeleteI will try to listen to it Weave.
DeleteThere are some voices of reason in all this Pat and I've seen some coming out of America as well but once protesters get a headlong charge of cause going they often become blinkered and deaf.
ReplyDeleteNot as deaf as governments have been for the last 50 years.
DeleteI think it is a really bright idea to put those historical monuments a society does not like anymore and find offending into a museum - there added with explanations around them - and not forgetting to remind visitors that these explanations are also subjective, "children of - our - time".
ReplyDeleteI am convinced that one should/could not shut ones's eyes only because our role in history does not please us.
BUT I am against censorship in the way that one hides what one doesn't want to see.
So I still am against changing the content of books - we have some very ridiculous attempts here in Germany - I think, we can add our interpretation, (which we now call objective facts - which I think at least unscientific because we put thus a fullstops to Erkenntnis, which is a delusion of grandeur)
But changing the role of Pippi Longleg's Father - no! Adding a "Thomasianna" to Thomas the Tank Engine - (as was demanded in earnest )?
No!
In Berlin they write now in official text for example "Künstler*KünstlerInnen" - every time (!!!) in a "normal" official text, and in some newspapers - meaning "men - * (=gender in-between) - Innen (= women, plural, for - well: women).
Makes reading not very smooth - the only change I would accept is "pope" - but I never saw "Papst*Innen" :-)
Attempting to please everyone - or not displease anyone - is the other side of censorship. We should allow ourselves to be offended. Being deliberately offensive is useful too, so long as it is not personal. Think punk...
DeleteWe can't just wipe out everything bad as if it never happened. We just need to know that it's wrong.
ReplyDeleteJudging the past by 21st century standards seems not right. Accepting that it was the norm then but that we know better now is much more educational.
I think that Boris has got it wrong. It isn't about wiping out history - just the opposite.
Delete