George Floyd Protests in Hyde Park

. 'The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there'. Future generations learn from history so it should not be eradicated or re-written. Destroying and defacing statues because one does not agree with their representation is unacceptable, and criminal damage. That aside, these protests have now erupted into violence. This is likely to damage any cause, not to mention the possibility of a second wave of the pandemic in the offing.

I was taught about the slave trade, the east India company, the empire in India etc by Miss Slater in her truly wonderful history class when I was 13/14. Till then I'd no idea how the black GI's who lived on the airbase in our village when I was 9 years old arrived in America. I knew they should be by the equator because I somehow absorbed the knowledge that skin colour was influenced by where our ancestors found themselves as we emerged into becoming humans.

I'm not sure of your point loislovesstuie - I stand by mine, that our history needs to be part of education throughout, in an age appropriate manner. I live in a town with a large population of Pakistani Muslims, invited from our former colonies to work in the cotton mills when white British people found work that was not as tough. Many people in our town and in the country seem unaware as to why we have this population. In fact, I heard the claim that Brexit would stop "all those Pakies". Ignorance enables bigotry.

Bristol became very wealthy from the SlaveTrade. Clifton was built on the money made......
as Lisalove above has posted slaves were captured and sold in many directions by many countries and do not forget the Romans.

Also Black tribes were happy to capture Enemy tribes and sell them onto either White or Arab traders.

It is not a simple picture though I have been told many times it is.

I think USA history has now been confused with our history eg... my eldest DGD at school was taught about Rosa Parks but not how her Home City of Bristol made itself rich on the Slave Trade.
Maybe it teaches now but it didn't 10 years ago.

Also when I lived there over 30 years ago Bristol was still in denial about the Slave Trade.
It was sickening.

We have never had legal racism but USA had until really recently.
I am not sure young people know this clear difference.

A personal story which I have posted elsewhere twice. I want to tell it here to show the posters who don't understand 'black lives matter'
One of my daughters-in-law is of Asian descent, her parents are from India, she was born and brought up in France, her parents sacrificed a lot to give her and her siblings a good education. She came to university in the UK to study English where she met my son. She has the most beautiful French accent when speaking English, she is such a gentle soul, intelligent and wise. She became a teacher in an English city where she used public transport daily to travel to and from school, she was subjected daily to the most vile racial abuse from mainly young white males. She told me that she had suffered the same in her home town of Valence in France.
They emigrated to Australia to escape this disgusting abuse and now their daughter, my sweet, kind and lovely thirteen year old granddaughter is suffering the same ignorant, cruel and nasty abuse and wanted to commit suicide recently when she was pushed to the ground and had dirt rubbed in her face while being told to go back to where she came from.
World over we must stamp this out. Education, education, education.

My point is that I do know history, and I think lots of people do. My kids were also taught about slavery and Empire . I am aware why there are people from the Indian sub-continent in the UK because I was taught it at school. In fact I think that it is very well taught at school.Both of my ,very adult, kids are very knowledgeable on the subject. In fact one has a degree in history.
I don't think it the lack of teaching of British history that is the problem but as I said on another thread we have a society which is very unequal;full stop. If society was more egalitarian then people would not be looking for scapegoats , there would be less racism, sexism and lots of other isms too. It's common to blame others for lack of resources rather than blame politicians for not tackling the 'wants' in society, i.e lack of decent housing, secure employment etc .

trisher

Did no one teach some people 2 wrongs don't make a right and you can't justify a crime by sayiing other people do it!
Slavery had a huge economic impact on this country and we should acknowledge that and ensure it is taught and remembered. Black history in general is something which we have nelected.

the current Mayor then vetoed it
Marvin Rees is black
Was it him or the previous one?

suziewoozie

Iam for years there has been political wrangling in Bristol to put up a plaque by the statue with details of how he made his money .Last year (?) the plaques was finally approved and cast and the current Mayor then vetoed it. In the light of that, then pulling it down and throwing it in the river is perfectly acceptable imo.

Sorry, trisher that is the wrong quote, I was answering *suziewoozies post!
How did that happen?

Perhaps a sherry and a glass of with dinner.

It's history.
It happened, we cannot disregard it.

A plaque is a good idea, are you sure that Marvin vetoed it?

And GrannyGravy s point remains unanswered by all you educated folks......

Growstuff. I had no idea that "All lives matter" was a far right slogan used by British First? I've never heard it, but then I don't move in those sort of circles. It just seems to me that Black Lives Matter excludes an awful lot of other people from all the other ethnic backgrounds. That in itself is racist isn't it? Perhaps a gran out there can come up with a better phrase if All Lives Matter is considered far right? If so, that phrase could be then be used for all sorts of protests against injustice, whoever the victims may be?

From the age of two, I was raised in Bristol that being at the time of the end of the second world war. In school we were taught frequently in the slave history Bristol had by way of what was known as the Bristol Merchant Adventures.

The above were the persons who owned the ships that transported the black captives from Africa into slavery in either the west indies or America. That passage was part of what was the "Golden Triangle" for those ships and through that triangle of trade brought enormous wealth to those ships owners.

It is true that Bristol benefited greatly from its part in the slave trade as the Merchant Adventurers gave very generously to the city.

However, it was not just that trade that brought huge income to the city, but the later arrival of the tobacco industry by way of the Wills family who at their peak had five large factories in the city from whom the docks and the cities also huge printing and packaging industry totally relied on. Many thousands of Bristolians owed their employment to the Wills family and tobacco for very many generations.

Bristols association with the slave trade is most certainly not a proud part of its history and is rightly these days often condemned. However, I find strange that Bristol's association with tobacco an industry that relies on the addiction of countless numbers and has killed many millions of all races over the world for hundreds of years is never condemned or even spoken of.

Indeed in the nineteen fifties when we were as kids about to leave school we were taken on tours of the tobacco factories and informed what a wonderfull "asset" the industry was to our great city of Bristol.

For those who want to know more about black lives matter v all lives matter, I began a thread earlier today. It’s here.

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1280045-Black-Lives-Matter-versus-All-Lives-Matter?msgid=27987012#27987012

As for the question about the pyramids - is anyone still suffering today from the slavery that was used to build them?

Slaves ? They're on the news every day working for the NHS !
Never mind talking about Pyramids----this is NOW !

And, of course, tobacco production relied in those first years on slaves Grandad.

EllanVannin

Slaves ? They're on the news every day working for the NHS !
Never mind talking about Pyramids----this is NOW !

Just in case you had not noticed. EllanVannin, people who work for the NHS in this day and age have a choice regarding whether they wish to work for that organization or not.

Totally ridicules post EllanVannin

Many of them have no choice with the job situation as it is !

We are a poor, deprived NE town and have a huge statue of Queen Victoria in the most prominent position. Did she ever visit here ? No. Did she care about the poverty endured in these parts? Did she know we existed ? I doubt it . Shall I tear down that statue ?

What is the lowest wage of anyone working in the NHS ?

I'll look out for you on the TV, gillybob.
Why have you got a statue of Queen Victoria?

We have a statue of Queen Victoria as well!

No idea if she set foot here

North West seaside resort

Not Blackpool

EllanVannin

Many of them have no choice with the job situation as it is !

EllanVannin, the employment situation in Britain has been very reasonable for a considerable number of years. The road transport industry is always requiring people to work in distribution centres and to train as drivers.

We then also have the farmers and growers who even at this time are on the news channels appealing for people to seek employment harvesting fruit and vegetables crops.

That is just two examples of how people can choose an alternative to working in the NHS even at this time.

A slave would have no choice whatsoever. He/she would be instructed where to work and in that they would receive no payment.

Understand it now EllanVannin

Jeez knows Calli it’s the most ugly statue you could ever wish to see. Why did deprived towns such as ours and (perhaps) oppsminty’s feel the need to erect a statue in honour of a queen who probably didn’t give a monkeys toot about “the North” ?

I’m still wondering what the lowest wage is for anyone working in the NHS today ?

Okay ........I will hazard a guess it’s a bit more than a slave .

Perhaps she stopped there en route to Balmoral?
We stayed in a hotel Queen Victoria stayed at in the North, with Albert and the children.

She would’ve had to take a detour to come here.

In her reign she would have not wanted to even breathe the same air never mind see the poverty with her own royal eyes .