I see some people making the 'removing statues is erasing history' argument.
As someone with a degree in European History, let me explain my view on why this doesn't hold water.
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As someone with a degree in European History, let me explain my view on why this doesn't hold water.
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Statues celebrate, memorials commemorate.
A statue doesn't teach real history. Its only purpose is, and has always been, to send a message of glorification.
A statue doesn't teach real history. Its only purpose is, and has always been, to send a message of glorification.
These statues, whether #LeopoldII in Belgium, #Colston in Britain or #GeneralLee in America, were erected decades after these people lived.
And they were built for specific reasons that said more about the present than the past.
And they were built for specific reasons that said more about the present than the past.
Bristol's Colston statue went up 174 years after he died, at a time when the UK needed to retroactively establish a 'manifest destiny' argument for its suddenly enormous empire.
newstatesman.com/2020/06/destru…
newstatesman.com/2020/06/destru…
Confederate statues went up during Jim Crow era in the south, 70+ years after Civil War, as a message of intimidation for black people and to romanticize the confederacy.
They were erected the fastest as a reaction to the civil rights movement. npr.org/2017/08/20/544…
They were erected the fastest as a reaction to the civil rights movement. npr.org/2017/08/20/544…
Leopold statues went up starting in the 1930s, at a time when the very existence of Belgium was under threat.
Their intention was to rehabilitate Leopold's image, after the Congo atrocities scandal caused him to die in infamy (Crowds booed at his funeral procession in 1909).
Their intention was to rehabilitate Leopold's image, after the Congo atrocities scandal caused him to die in infamy (Crowds booed at his funeral procession in 1909).
The statue rehabilitation worked. The memory of the Belgian king's atrocities was almost completely erased till Hochschild's book in 1999.
Many of the statues went up in the 1950s, when DR Congo was agitating for independence. The most recent was 1969. newstatesman.com/world/europe/2…
Many of the statues went up in the 1950s, when DR Congo was agitating for independence. The most recent was 1969. newstatesman.com/world/europe/2…
The erection of statues is history itself, designed to send a specific message.
The removal of statues, and their accompanying message, is also history. Both say something about us as a society, about the kind of country we want to live in.
The removal of statues, and their accompanying message, is also history. Both say something about us as a society, about the kind of country we want to live in.
A plaque, that few will read, can only be a footnote to the glorification that a statue represents.
True history is found in memorials and museums.
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True history is found in memorials and museums.
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