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'Master' and 'slave': Tech terms face scrutiny amid anti-racism efforts
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Simon:

--- Quote from: dave j on June 15, 2020, 06:35:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: coppice on June 15, 2020, 06:02:38 pm ---People need constant reminding of how badly things go wrong when society lets its guard down. In the UK the residents of Bristol seem happy at the moment that a statue of slave trader Edward Colson has just been pulled down, and streets and schools named after him are being renamed. They want this because they want to santize their city, and pretend they have a squeaky clean history. Its a terrible idea. 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not a game plan.

--- End quote ---
The text on the Colston statue's plaque reads "ERECTED BY CITIZENS OF BRISTOL AS A MEMORIAL OF ONE OF THE MOST VIRTUOUS AND WISE SONS OF THEIR CITY. A.D.1895". Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833, so the people who erected it in 1895 knew full well that slavery was wrong. The real sanitizing of Bristol's history was in full swing in 1895.

--- End quote ---

So change the plaque!
nuclearcat:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on June 15, 2020, 06:20:59 pm ---Statues and street names are intended to celebrate people, that's what the objection is to. Should Germany re-erect statues of Hitler because removing them was 'sanitization' (done by the Allies during the "denazification" of Germany)?

I rather liked Banksy's suggestion, put the statute back up, then erect more statues showing people pulling the re-erected statue down. That would be apposite, no erasing of history but rather a statement of "Look we used to celebrate this fellow but then we didn't and here's the reminder of all of it".

--- End quote ---
Then explain to me "Memorial in memory of the British, French and Russians who fell during the battle of Inkerman on October 24" (British and French were invaders), that russians restored quite recently. They have tons of such.
Or a monument to Genghis Khan who conquered Russians in very bad way. He would not have a statue earlier, while the pain from his actions was still felt, but later, they did it when they were able to look at the events of those times more independently. Now they understand, in those days, there was a different truth, a different assessment of actions. For example, the fact that the actions of Genghis Khan was possible because of weakness, and reminds people to be more united against aggressors, and etc.
They have a lot of such monuments too.
A monument is a historical landmark, if it is made to a bad person and irritate significant part of population - it can be transferred somewhere to the backyard until better times, but people should not try to rewrite or delete part of the story, by destroying or altering monuments.
There is exception to pointless, countless and useless monuments that was erected as part of "cult of personality" to dictators, but even those, good to keep some in museums, with proper explanation.
Perfect words of Winston Churchill: “A nation that forgets its past has no future”.
People should stop being hypersensitive idiots who are offended by everything around them.
nuclearcat:

--- Quote from: Simon on June 15, 2020, 06:38:47 pm ---So change the plaque!

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I rather say - add additional remark about his wrongdoings.
Original should be kept ,as reminder, that people often glorify and erect statues to wrong people.
DimitriP:

--- Quote from: coppice on June 15, 2020, 06:12:08 pm ---
--- Quote from: tooki on June 15, 2020, 06:08:17 pm ---Not glorifying/celebrating ≠ sanitizing.

--- End quote ---
That's one of the excuses they use in 1984. Its sad they so many people right now are happy to side with the bad side in 1984.

--- End quote ---

yeah...but it's for a "good" cause ...   
dave j:

--- Quote from: Simon on June 15, 2020, 06:38:47 pm ---So change the plaque!

--- End quote ---
There have been many requests to add an addition plaque explaining Colston's involvement with the slave trade over the years but they've all been rejected. Maybe if Bristol had done that rather than trying so hard to hide it's involvement with the slave trade the Colston statue would still be there.
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