I am not trying to be controversial, but...........

I think that the concentration on whether or not statues should stay where they are is a deliberate distraction from the problem of racism. We cannot rewrite history, but we can try to learn from it. Statues of prominent slave traders should, as lemongrove said, be quietly removed, but the history, the stories should not.

I think that the Orwell quote is far from pertinent. Orwell was talking of the eradication of the truth. The current protests over continuing to commemorate Brits who carried out, or profited from, the slave trade without any reference to their involvement are about acknowledging the truth.

I remember celebrations and great self congratulation around the 200th anniversary of the British abolition of the slave trade. It seems it was all quietly forgotten about when statues like Colston's were left standing.

(I do think that banning Gone With The Wind is very silly)

maizie I keep banging on about the use of the Orwellian quote and how it is entirely out of context, but no one seems to get it.

I am cross stitching a quote from Gone With The Wind, am I
a racist !

Thank you for all your thought provoking views. I remember my history teacher on my first day at high school telling us that the main reason for learning history was so that we did not repeat the mistakes made by our forefathers. I think that this remark is very apt concerning slavery.

We'll just bang on together, then, Wwmk2

No, it doesn't make you a racist, Annie, don't be daft.

I loved the book when I first read it many years ago, but since researching the Jamaican side of my ancestry and doing a lot of reading around the history of the island I don't find Gone With The Wind quite as compelling these days...

Thank you Maizie, it’s for my elder granddaughter who loves the book and film , no way is she racist , one of her closest friends before they went to university was the son of a
Gurkha army captain .

Very interesting, Dinahmo (and you have a great nickname). What you said about many of us benefiting from the riches of those slave traders or sugar planters is so true.
Now, we must as a society acknowledge this, by making explicit the history of these men. I'm tending to think that putting the statues in museums will let people forget them. Maybe keeping them in our midst, with explanations, would be a more effective reminder.

We're all entitled to our point of view WWmk and Maizie; we don't all have to agree with one another's do we.

maizie I looked in depth at the history of the Caribbean including Jamaica as part of my degree?

Good stuff.

Romola Thanks for the compliment. It was the nick name of a small tortoiseshell cat that I had many years ago, who was named after Alice's cat.

Thank you also for your comment.

I think I've got that book somewhere at the back of a cupboard.

The cost of building and erecting various statues would be money best spent elsewhere. They only cause ructions whoever it is as many many people have played their parts in whatever they've done but never get recognised for posterity.

What 'point of view' is that Smileless? Twisting a quotation from Orwell to try to make it say what it doesn't say?

Have you read '1984'?

Surely,it is not so much that Gone with the Wind, showed slavery as part of its plot. That was correct for the historical time it was depicting -however, the depiction of nearly all the black characters (like the young servant girl in it) as not really 'with it', less able intellectually than the white characters, that is what is so horrible in that film and book,

I would much prefer to see To Kill a Mockingbird' which shows how very bad racial problems were in USA in the 20th century. And quote the Walk in Another shoes is more pertinant for us all.

Whenever someone starts of a sentence ' I am not a racist , but....' I start to curl up inside!!!

These statues are of an important part of British and colonial history - they should be confined to museums with good information alongside them . We should not be having them in public places as if they are to be admired.

I think everyone should buy Alex Haley's book---Roots !

I think that police brutality in America is a different problem from how we should remember slavery as it was in the 18th & 19th centuries, but the two seem to have become conflated.
The current protests in this country about historical slavery risk distracting from the fact that modern slavery exists and that as a society we should be addressing that, and the reasons why black people are disadvantaged, in our society, today.

My post of 11.19 on this thread is still how I feel about the Orwell Quote

Saw it on the telly, EV!

It fills me with horror and great sadness to think that at least one of my ancestors was captured in their home country, shipped across the world in appalling conditions, sold like a commodity and used like an animal on a plantation.

As Orwell was a prominent 'antifa', GG13 I think he'll be turning in his grave at your interpretation.

Yes, I've read it Maizie. I don't have a copy now so cannot look to see if GrannyGravy quoted it correctly but I'm sure she has. If she hadn't that would be an example of "twisting a quotation".

People seeing and agreeing that a particular quote is in their opinion, pertinent and relevant to a current situation, is not an example of that quote being twisted, simply because others disagree.

For me it's relevance and pertinence is self explanatory.

I think that is a good idea Missfoodlove. We shouldn't want a Ministry of Truth rewriting history but we do need something to bring the story up to date.

Although " Gone with the Wind " has been taken off whichever streaming service it was on they have said they will bring it back with a sort of prologue explaining the time it meant to depict, etc.

I think that's a sign of the times Franbern, people beginning a sentence in that way because they fear they will be accused of racism.

There's been a lot of criticism of Meghan and Harry's general behaviour and treatment of the Queen and wider royal family here on GN. As a result there have been unjustified accusations of racism. It is the behaviour that has upset many people in the UK; and for many Meghan's race/colour has nothing to do with it

I agree GGumteenth we can't rewrite history but we can explain the context and hopefully learn from it.

Smiless2020 I do think that in 2020 the party in the quote has been replaced by BLM, disgruntled Labour Activists and unfortunately Antifa.

So you don't think all lives are of equal value, that we shouldn't fight for a more equal society and supporting fascism is okay GG13. I think that is the most shocked I have been on GN.