On Monday, anti-racism protesters in the Bristol, UK felled the statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader. They proceeded to ‘give him the knee’, symbolic of the George Floyd issue, before throwing it into the Bristol harbour.
Edward Colston had a rich legacy of being a slave trader in the 17th century and has a street and multiple buildings named after him. His statue had been shrouded with controversy for many years, including a petition to take it down.
There have been mixed reactions in response to this act by the protesters.
While the incident garnered much celebration among protesters, politicians have taken to social media to express their dissent on this issue. Home Secretary Priti Patel called the tearing down of the statue “utterly disgraceful”, adding that “it speaks to the acts of public disorder that have become a distraction from the cause people are protesting about”, and Mark Weston, councillor for Henbury and Brentry who has defended keeping Colston’s name on buildings in the city, said on Facebook: “Destroying parts of our history that you don’t agree with isn’t protest – it’s criminal damage!
Similarly, Sir Winston Churchill too faced the protestors wrath on Sunday, as they spray-painted the words “Churchill is a racist” on his statue. These incidents have raised many eyebrows, urging the country to address its dark days in history.