Edward Colston/Trans rights/Stamp collecting

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Comments

  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,484
    Too much of a leap to suggest that that superintendent knew the history of policing large protests in Bristol?
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 21,741

    rjsterry said:

    To follow on from the past is not history comment on another thread, it's worth remembering that this statue wasn't put up till long after the guy was dead to begin with.

    Exactly. With a load of guff about how wise and virtuous he was inscribed below. The statue was put up in the 1890s when maritime Bristol was very much past its peak, so there's a strong whiff of looking back to some imagined 'good old days'. Revisionism is nothing new.
    As someone else commented - statues are put up to rewrite history

    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,227

  • nickice
    nickice Posts: 2,439
    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.
  • pangolin
    pangolin Posts: 6,279
    nickice said:

    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.

    Do you have any examples of statues like that which actually exist?
    - Genesis Croix de Fer
    - Dolan Tuono
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,484
    Views of what is acceptable change, and will continue to change. Not that long ago Victorian buildings were seen as unwanted relics and pulled down and now many are treasured. If some future generation pulls down this hypothetical statue we won't be around to care.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • nickice
    nickice Posts: 2,439
    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.

    Do you have any examples of statues like that which actually exist?
    There is a monument to Michael Brown in a St Louis museum. I'm sure there are more.
  • surrey_commuter
    surrey_commuter Posts: 18,864
    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.

    Do you have any examples of statues like that which actually exist?
    Nelson Mandela?
  • pangolin
    pangolin Posts: 6,279
    nickice said:

    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.

    Do you have any examples of statues like that which actually exist?
    There is a monument to Michael Brown in a St Louis museum. I'm sure there are more.
    Well a museum is where most poeple thought the Colston statue should have been, with some context explaining the history, rather than in the middle of town with a plaque saying he was one of the most virtuous and wise people of Bristol


    - Genesis Croix de Fer
    - Dolan Tuono
  • nickice
    nickice Posts: 2,439
    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.

    Do you have any examples of statues like that which actually exist?
    There is a monument to Michael Brown in a St Louis museum. I'm sure there are more.
    Well a museum is where most poeple thought the Colston statue should have been, with some context explaining the history, rather than in the middle of town with a plaque saying he was one of the most virtuous and wise people of Bristol


    So how do you think people would react now if they built a new statue of Edward Colston and put it in a museum because that would be analogous.
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,484
    You seem to be ignoring the point that the statue was set up long after his death and deliberately portrayed a semi-fictional vaguely heroic version of Colston, a bit like all those Victorian statues of Alfred the Great.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • surrey_commuter
    surrey_commuter Posts: 18,864
    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?
  • nickice
    nickice Posts: 2,439
    rjsterry said:

    You seem to be ignoring the point that the statue was set up long after his death and deliberately portrayed a semi-fictional vaguely heroic version of Colston, a bit like all those Victorian statues of Alfred the Great.

    I'm not ignoring it. Do you think people would have accepted it if it was just a statue with his name and nothing else? The point I'm making is that people should be careful what they wish for.
  • Jeremy.89
    Jeremy.89 Posts: 457

    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?

    Is there a time limit for reparations?

    Spending energy trying to improve modern attitudes would seem more worthwhile than trying to work out how reparations would be distributed justly.

    "I'm sorry a copper stopped you on a bike ride caus he thought he smelt weed on your breath, here's a tenner" feels like both an attempt to wash over someone's experience of racism, and also an act that would really rub the right wingers up the wrong way. *

    *not that I'm necessarily against the later.
  • nickice
    nickice Posts: 2,439

    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?

    I mean there are a great deal of trade policies that could be changed before I'd advocate reparations.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,508
    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.

    Do you have any examples of statues like that which actually exist?
    There is a monument to Michael Brown in a St Louis museum. I'm sure there are more.
    Well a museum is where most poeple thought the Colston statue should have been, with some context explaining the history, rather than in the middle of town with a plaque saying he was one of the most virtuous and wise people of Bristol


    In 1895. Also in 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years' hard labour for gross indecency. There isn't a statue commemorating that though.
  • surrey_commuter
    surrey_commuter Posts: 18,864
    Jeremy.89 said:

    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?

    Is there a time limit for reparations?

    Spending energy trying to improve modern attitudes would seem more worthwhile than trying to work out how reparations would be distributed justly.

    "I'm sorry a copper stopped you on a bike ride caus he thought he smelt weed on your breath, here's a tenner" feels like both an attempt to wash over someone's experience of racism, and also an act that would really rub the right wingers up the wrong way. *

    *not that I'm necessarily against the later.
    no time limit on voluntarily doing the right thing. Close down everything funded from the slave trade and let the trustees distribute the funds
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,227
    edited June 2020

    Jeremy.89 said:

    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?

    Is there a time limit for reparations?

    Spending energy trying to improve modern attitudes would seem more worthwhile than trying to work out how reparations would be distributed justly.

    "I'm sorry a copper stopped you on a bike ride caus he thought he smelt weed on your breath, here's a tenner" feels like both an attempt to wash over someone's experience of racism, and also an act that would really rub the right wingers up the wrong way. *

    *not that I'm necessarily against the later.
    no time limit on voluntarily doing the right thing. Close down everything funded from the slave trade and let the trustees distribute the funds
    Wouldn't it be more sensible, rather than shutting down a school (is the issue here not quite evenly split on generational lines, reflecting perhaps the difference in education compared to before?) to incorporate the issue into the education.

    I would have thought making the school a leading light in how to examine Britain's colonial past in mainstream education would be more appropriate.

    To give a colonial example, just because thousands of slaves died in forced labour building a train track, doesn't mean you shouldn't use the train track anymore, no?
  • pangolin
    pangolin Posts: 6,279

    Jeremy.89 said:

    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?

    Is there a time limit for reparations?

    Spending energy trying to improve modern attitudes would seem more worthwhile than trying to work out how reparations would be distributed justly.

    "I'm sorry a copper stopped you on a bike ride caus he thought he smelt weed on your breath, here's a tenner" feels like both an attempt to wash over someone's experience of racism, and also an act that would really rub the right wingers up the wrong way. *

    *not that I'm necessarily against the later.
    no time limit on voluntarily doing the right thing. Close down everything funded from the slave trade and let the trustees distribute the funds
    Wouldn't it be more sensible, rather than shutting down a school (is the issue here not quite evenly split on generational lines, reflecting perhaps the difference in education compared to before?) to incorporate the issue into the education.

    I would have thought making the school a leading light in how to examine Britain's colonial past in mainstream education would be more appropriate.

    To give a colonial example, just because thousands of slaves died in forced labour building a train track, doesn't mean you shouldn't use the train track anymore, no?
    Mayor of London agrees education is the way to go

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52977088

    "He said pupils needed to be educated about famous figures "warts and all" and that "nobody was perfect", including the likes of Churchill, Gandhi and Malcolm X."
    - Genesis Croix de Fer
    - Dolan Tuono
  • pangolin
    pangolin Posts: 6,279
    nickice said:

    rjsterry said:

    You seem to be ignoring the point that the statue was set up long after his death and deliberately portrayed a semi-fictional vaguely heroic version of Colston, a bit like all those Victorian statues of Alfred the Great.

    I'm not ignoring it. Do you think people would have accepted it if it was just a statue with his name and nothing else? The point I'm making is that people should be careful what they wish for.
    I think people would have been a lot more likely to accept it if it had told both sides of the story.
    - Genesis Croix de Fer
    - Dolan Tuono
  • surrey_commuter
    surrey_commuter Posts: 18,864

    Jeremy.89 said:

    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?

    Is there a time limit for reparations?

    Spending energy trying to improve modern attitudes would seem more worthwhile than trying to work out how reparations would be distributed justly.

    "I'm sorry a copper stopped you on a bike ride caus he thought he smelt weed on your breath, here's a tenner" feels like both an attempt to wash over someone's experience of racism, and also an act that would really rub the right wingers up the wrong way. *

    *not that I'm necessarily against the later.
    no time limit on voluntarily doing the right thing. Close down everything funded from the slave trade and let the trustees distribute the funds
    Wouldn't it be more sensible, rather than shutting down a school (is the issue here not quite evenly split on generational lines, reflecting perhaps the difference in education compared to before?) to incorporate the issue into the education.

    I would have thought making the school a leading light in how to examine Britain's colonial past in mainstream education would be more appropriate.

    To give a colonial example, just because thousands of slaves died in forced labour building a train track, doesn't mean you shouldn't use the train track anymore, no?
    seems shutting down a school is not as easy as pulling down a statue. Personally I would find it easy to find a better use for wealth earned from slavery.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,508

    Jeremy.89 said:

    what does everybody think about the schools that he endowed with his ill gotten gains.

    Dropping his name seems like an easy cop out. Surely liquidating them (and similar establishments) and sending the money as reparations somewhere would be appropriate?

    Is there a time limit for reparations?

    Spending energy trying to improve modern attitudes would seem more worthwhile than trying to work out how reparations would be distributed justly.

    "I'm sorry a copper stopped you on a bike ride caus he thought he smelt weed on your breath, here's a tenner" feels like both an attempt to wash over someone's experience of racism, and also an act that would really rub the right wingers up the wrong way. *

    *not that I'm necessarily against the later.
    no time limit on voluntarily doing the right thing. Close down everything funded from the slave trade and let the trustees distribute the funds
    Wouldn't it be more sensible, rather than shutting down a school (is the issue here not quite evenly split on generational lines, reflecting perhaps the difference in education compared to before?) to incorporate the issue into the education.

    I would have thought making the school a leading light in how to examine Britain's colonial past in mainstream education would be more appropriate.

    To give a colonial example, just because thousands of slaves died in forced labour building a train track, doesn't mean you shouldn't use the train track anymore, no?
    seems shutting down a school is not as easy as pulling down a statue. Personally I would find it easy to find a better use for wealth earned from slavery.
    How much of your net wealth are you offering up for the slavery redistribution fund?
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,227



    If you think Colston is a can of worms, wait till you check out the debate in Belgium about king Leopold II statues...

    We'll it's properly kicked off there with multiple *large* statues of the guy being burned and/or torn down.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,508



    If you think Colston is a can of worms, wait till you check out the debate in Belgium about king Leopold II statues...

    We'll it's properly kicked off there with multiple *large* statues of the guy being burned and/or torn down.
    His museum used to be a bit odd in that it had no mention of any trouble he might have caused in Africa.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,227



    If you think Colston is a can of worms, wait till you check out the debate in Belgium about king Leopold II statues...

    We'll it's properly kicked off there with multiple *large* statues of the guy being burned and/or torn down.
    His museum used to be a bit odd in that it had no mention of any trouble he might have caused in Africa.
    It is is in the same ballpark as the holocaust in terms of overall numbers of death and quantity of suffering. Obviously not quite as fast, but it's really very very bad.
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,718
    pangolin said:

    nickice said:

    I was thinking about this today: At some point, it's not inconceivable that there will be a statue of George Floyd. Obviously, it will be to represent someone brutally killed by the police rather than the person himself (who, by most accounts, wasn't a good guy). I'd be interested to know where protesters against statues of flawed historical figures would stand on that.

    Do you have any examples of statues like that which actually exist?
    Martin Luther King is a possible, if you accept the FBI intelligence from the time that he was present at and encouraged a rape.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,508



    If you think Colston is a can of worms, wait till you check out the debate in Belgium about king Leopold II statues...

    We'll it's properly kicked off there with multiple *large* statues of the guy being burned and/or torn down.
    His museum used to be a bit odd in that it had no mention of any trouble he might have caused in Africa.
    It is is in the same ballpark as the holocaust in terms of overall numbers of death and quantity of suffering. Obviously not quite as fast, but it's really very very bad.
    Can the British schools teach that the Belgiums were worse?
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,227



    If you think Colston is a can of worms, wait till you check out the debate in Belgium about king Leopold II statues...

    We'll it's properly kicked off there with multiple *large* statues of the guy being burned and/or torn down.
    His museum used to be a bit odd in that it had no mention of any trouble he might have caused in Africa.
    It is is in the same ballpark as the holocaust in terms of overall numbers of death and quantity of suffering. Obviously not quite as fast, but it's really very very bad.
    Can the British schools teach that the Belgiums were worse?
    Ahaha, I literally wrote my dissertation on the British colonialists take on the Congo colonial experience, given they firmly believed that it was Europeans on a civilising mission to tame the 'savages', yet it was and still is one of the worst ever atrocities ever committed in history.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,508



    If you think Colston is a can of worms, wait till you check out the debate in Belgium about king Leopold II statues...

    We'll it's properly kicked off there with multiple *large* statues of the guy being burned and/or torn down.
    His museum used to be a bit odd in that it had no mention of any trouble he might have caused in Africa.
    It is is in the same ballpark as the holocaust in terms of overall numbers of death and quantity of suffering. Obviously not quite as fast, but it's really very very bad.
    Can the British schools teach that the Belgiums were worse?
    Ahaha, I literally wrote my dissertation on the British colonialists take on the Congo colonial experience, given they firmly believed that it was Europeans on a civilising mission to tame the 'savages', yet it was and still is one of the worst ever atrocities ever committed in history.
    You've expressed your view on this a few times. I might even go as far to say it is a hobby horse.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,227
    Honestly, I am quite blown away they're doing it.

    Might have to make myself a drink to celebrate tonight.

    Remarkable. Honestly, never thought in my lifetime they'd get rid of statues of the guy.