No one is righting any wrongs or altering history. The idea is simply to be aware of the wrongs and correct misplaced celebrations. They were different times? Really? The UK made slavery illegal in the UK colonies in 1833. The statue to Colston was originally erected in 1895. Actually slavery was made illegal within the UK in 1772. So the problems with slavery had been acknowledged for many, many years before the statue appear. Why do you claim different times and different ideas of what was right and wrong?
There were no misplaced celebrations at that time. Obviously it would have been dealt with at the time if there were.
Nobody involved in the Statue issue had anything to do with with what happened in the past, and that is my argument with the woke. They are dredging up history to do what exactly?
Perhaps they are being manipulated by somebody with an agenda. They are being used.
If people are interested in the history of Colson and slavery they will research it themselves. They donât need a group of self serving students to break the law on their behalf.
I agree that the damage and the law breaking were wrong. But woke is not about damage and law breaking. Or rather, should not be.
However, imagine you are descended from people who were slaves. And you live in Bristol. And you walk down a street there is a statue celebrating a man who traded slaves, owned slaves and made a fortune from slaves. And this statue makes no reference to all that. And the Bristol council does not care or change anything. Would you then think âits all ok because people can go find out for themselvesâ?
Imagine how a German must feel after we bombed the hell out of Germany during the war when they see statues of Churchill, or the Spanish because we defeated their amada, and the French when they see statues of NelsonâŠAre we to pander to the whims if everyone who we now accept we did wrong to? How about British people who now live in France, how do they feel when they see statues of Napoleon who slaughtered many British sailors and soldiers?
Just to put something right here - Colston never owned slaves! He was a major shareholder in the company which traded in slaves and made a fortune from what was then a legitimate trade and let us not forget that those poor people were sold to the traders by their fellow Africans - will you not place any blame on them?
You would be hard pressed to find someone in Bristol who was descended from slaves - the majority of those of ethnic background are descended from those who came to Bristol during the time of Windrush and many others who are more recent immigrants
My ancestors were dock workers in Bristol and very likely unloaded ships owned by the company Colston had shares in - although no slaves were actually brought to Bristol - so would likely have been paid out of money made from the slave trade, should they have refused the work and let their families starve? It is easy to put todayâs values on historic events.
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Depends, if you are middle class now, and have done alright regardless of history.
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Is this where our taxes go, to students who should be learning skills to take their place in society instead of poncing around Bristol defacing historical monuments?
Some folks with historical dubious histories have done well within the system, what does that indicate?
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It indicates that the proâs exceeded the cons Spitty.
Exactly, the system allows for all, regardless of the history, this little island has afforded opportunity to all, some have embraced more than the originals, that seems to be the problem 
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All fair questions and most likely the reason there were objections to the statue of Bomber Harris.
I suspect, as you noted Churchill and Napoleon, the locals where the statues are think think overall these men were good. Churchill made terrible mistakes, costs thousands of lives, but on balance was most likely beneficial to the UK and efforts against Hitler. Napoleon was much more than a general as the Napoleonic code in France shows⊠But as you highlight, some disagree.
This complexity is why, as I already stated, I disagree with mobs destroying any statue. But I do agree with balanced info being provided right by the statue.
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