Rhodes down

I was pleased to see on the news this morning that Oriel College in Oxford have agreed to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes. Shame that it still needs to go through a number of other stages before it can actually be taken down, but whenever that happens, I’m sure it will be done with an adequate amount of publicity and a suitable explanation of all the unsavoury sides to his life that, in the current climate led to this decision. And about time too. Actually, is unsavoury’ the right word? No, I think I prefer ‘downright exploitative and inhumane’ and certainly not actions to be celebrated.

image courtesy of Reuters

In the coming weeks and months I am sure there will be conversations, debates, campaigns and possible removal of various other statues around the country. Statues of people who were once celebrated for what they had achieved, but when considered in the cold light of day, from a more multi-ethnic perspective, can only be seen as people who didn’t do anything to revered, but instead caused untold amounts of suffering, injustice and pain, and who instigated and instilled deep and long-lasting prejudice, racism and inequality.

And that’s good – we need to be rid of these ‘monuments’ that glorify these people. Put them in a museum, contextualise their actions, give a broader perspective to what they did, rewrite the history books…..Yes do all that.

But at the same time, we need to ensure that the conversation doesn’t just go down the historical route.

We also need to keep at the forefront of the conversation the issue of racism and inequality that exists today. Why is it that more BAME young men are stopped by police than white young men? Why is it that more people from BAME are at risk of CV-19 than white people? Why is it that people from BAME feel that they have to work twice as hard as anyone else, just to try and get the same outcomes? Why is it that the employment prospects for BAME people are lower than their white counterparts? Etc etc.

This all needs to be addressed, and proper actions taken – policies reviewed, new laws put in place, systemic racism outlawed, systemic bias uncovered and overturned.

Because if we only talk about the past, and we don’t address the present, we aren’t going to make any positive impact on the future. And without that – well, what sort of a society are we? Certainly not one I want to be part of.