June 19th 2020: Statue of Junipero Serra toppled in San Francisco.
Racist statues (fl. 1895-2015) are statues that White people in the US and UK and elsewhere have put up to honour their racist heroes: Christopher Columbus, Robert E. Lee, Winston Churchill, Cecil Rhodes, White Jesus, etc. One of the glorious things about the George Floyd protests of 2020 is that some of these statues are coming down! Or at least being defaced. Honouring racist heroes is honouring racism.
June 7th 2020: Statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader, being thrown into the harbour of Bristol, England.
Meanwhile in London…
None of this is new. The Charlottesville riot of “very fine people” in 2017 was about taking down a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general. There have long been petitions to bring down some of these statues and all it has led to in most cases is hemming and hawing by the (mostly White) authorities.
The Confederacy, a crash course: Many of these statues are of Confederate generals. These generals fought against the USA as part of the CSA (Confederate States of America) from 1861 to 1865 – to defend slavery! And not just any old slavery, but the racialized slavery of Black people. On top of that, they were traitors to the US and lost the war. To defend these statues as “heritage”, as President Trump does, is to wink at the hate they stood for.
Ditto the heroes of the British Empire. Also built on White racism.
This stuff should not even be “controversial”. But it is. Even in 2020. Because the racism that these statues represent in bronze lives on in hearts made of stone.
Know your history: Some argue that tearing down these statues erases history, that the answer is to put them in museums or to add an Informative Plaque. I am a huge fan of knowing your history – and so is the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, but you do not see them putting up statues of Adolf Hitler or Adolf Eichmann. Why is that?
As Padma Lakshmi, Salman Rushdie’s ex-wife, noted;
“Germany doesn’t have Nazi monuments to ‘remind’ citizens of their history. Instead, they have memorials for the 6 million Jews and others who were murdered.
“The U.S. doesn’t need statues of confederate generals to ‘remind’ us. We need monuments for Nat Turner & Harriet Tubman.”
Both the US and the UK teach a very Whitewashed view of history – a racist fairy tale. And that is a bigger and deeper issue than these statues. The statues are the tip of that iceberg.
“It was the times!” Who are we, some say, to judge men in the past by our Modern Standards? But most of these statues were set up long after these men lived.
On the practical side, I would not go after George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or White Jesus. The right-wing will just bash that as being against God or country while Completely Missing The Point. Mount Rushmore, though, needs to go. Or rather, be given back to the Lakota Sioux Indians.
Hint: There are certain household chemicals that can damage bronze in a hard-to-undo way.
– Abagond, 2020.
See also:
- The George Floyd protests
- Charlottesville riot
- The Confederate flag – many of the same issues
- “It was the times!”
- wilfully obtuse – completely missing the point (on purpose)
- Rushdie
- Among the fallen or removed:
- Christopher Columbus
- Junipero Serra
- Edward Colston
- Robert E. Lee
- Uncle Jack the Good Darky
- Among the defaced:
- other:
- alternative heroes:
- Harriet Tubman
- Nat Turner
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Abagond 
“On the practical side, I would not go after George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or White Jesus. The right-wing will just bash that as being against God or country while Completely Missing The Point.”
What did White Jesus do to anybody? Jefferson, Washington, the declaration of Independence and the constitution are fair game for symbolic repudiation. Weren’t the people you want to exclude the ones who set up the vicious racket that people like Bobby Lee felt compelled to maintain? The spiel about “It was their times!” forgets that France abolished slavery on 02/04/1794 under pressure from the slaves of St-Domingue.
I say symbolic repudiation, because it’s obvious you don’t have the heart to take on the root of the problem and remove it. If you did you wouldn’t have written the last sentence. If you disagree with Trump about them being ‘fine’ people, what do you care what they think?
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Abagond, please enlighten me on Juniper Serra’s racism. Thanks!
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@ Simon
I did a post on him:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/juniper-serra/
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Take a look at this video: (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TpsA4zMtB8M)
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@abagond
Thank you. Didn’t know anything about Serra but was curious because I am a Catholic. I have to go back to the drawing board of my mind.
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Hey Abagond! Margaret Kimberly did another good piece on statues here: (https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/19/goodbye-columbus/)
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I am for getting rid of all symbols of racism and oppression. So good riddance.
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Hey Gro Jo,
Can you elaborate upon said repudiation as it relates to the Constitution?
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Trump threatens prison for vandalism of monuments.
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@Mary Burrell…“I am for getting rid of all symbols of racism and oppression. So good riddance.”
Hey Mary, life just keeps happening, so I’ve been out-of-pocket for a minute — but I sure missed you!!! I’m still working it out in my head, vacillating between totally getting rid of these Mofos, or moving them to some kind of damned park or museum in each state where they now stand, where theTRUTH of all their murderous, inhumane living is laid the hell out (since HISTORY BOOKS have NEVER done that sh*t!) — because I want folk to KNOW what kind of degenerates they’ve been exalting for all these years.
Believe me, I get it — I was born and raised in Charleston, SC where the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) felt it their duty to erect and name all kinds of sh*t in honor of these fools. As a matter of fact, this just happened today: (https://www.postandcourier.com/news/calhoun-statue-to-be-removed-from-charlestons-marion-square-after-unanimous-council-vote/article_c6970914-b56a-11ea-9236-575797cb7631.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Breaking%20062320&utm_content=Breaking%20062320+CID_f0be6d9e95c4ac5a7819b7ba5582540b&utm_source=CampaignMonitor&utm_term=Read%20the%20full%20story)
Still working through it, Daughter…
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Th is like 1001?
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I did read about some statues for abolitionists being torn down.
I don’t think those abolitionists would mind really. 🙂
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“Hey Gro Jo,
Can you elaborate upon said repudiation as it relates to the Constitution?”
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other Persons.” Article I, Section 2.
“No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom Service or Labour may be due.” Article IV, Section 2.
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Isn’t article one repudiated by the 13th and 14th amendments?
Article IV by the repeal in 1864, as it relates to fugitive slaves?
~PF Thought
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Yes, but they are integral parts of the constitution. Your objection would be just as valid for the statues being pulled down.
“Isn’t the statue of MLK and others repudiations of statues of “Bobby” and others like him?”
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They were integral parts of the Constitution. After the amendments and repeal they are only integral as educational tools.
I wasn’t defending the statues.
What’s the “Bobby” reference?
~PF-T
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“What’s the “Bobby” reference?” Robert “Bobby” E. Lee.
The centuries long criminalization of Blacks, in accordance with the 13th Amendment, makes article one more than an ‘educational’ tool.
“The 13th Amendment banned slavery and all involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime”
“I wasn’t defending the statues.” Where have I insinuated that you defended them?
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@ munubantu
The George Floyd Protest thread (6-11-20), you posed some interesting questions about racist statues and other symbols in Europe and the Americas.
For nearly two weeks I was bowled over by a tidal wave of project work and could not respond. However, I did some reading and thinking on the subject and here goes:
You made some good points about why it would be preferable for indigenous Europeans being at the forefront of bringing down White supremacist statues and other racist symbols.
Where I disagree is with your reasoning that the tumbling of the statues will trigger a “strong backlash by the far-right and other nativist organisations in those countries against descendants of immigrants”. You opined that “native White Europeans must do this themselves if they find it fit.”
To me, the “strong backlash” will rain down on immigrant communities whether or not they actively participate in bringing down the statues and symbols of White supremacy. Those immigrant communities from Africa Major, Asia, The Maghreb, Latin America and the Caribbean region are nearly always scapegoated for social and economic ills in European societies. Even if they were nowhere to be found during the toppling of the statues and symbols, they would still get blamed for the actions of like minded indigenous Europeans.
Far right and nativist organizations in Europe will unleash a furious backlash no matter what. They are feeling outnumbered. They are feeling irrelevant. They are feeling the erosion of global White privilege and identity and they will react in a violent manner because that is their default. They used extraordinary violence to build and maintain their global caste system. They will continue to use extraordinary violence, but it will gain them nothing more than a temporary reprieve. A rearguard action.
There will be a refashioning of global relationships, whether far right and nativist organizations in Europe (and the Americas) like it or not.
Another point I must make is the national symbols and statues that are being challenged in Europe and the Americas are homages to White supremacist leaders that mistreated the ancestors of many members of contemporary European immigrant communities. Examples include:
➤ King Leopold of Belgium who murdered nearly 15 million Congolese between 1885–1908.
➤ Christopher Columbus who with his crew basically walked onto the shore of Hispanola and began a kidnaping and killing spree on the native Taino population without so much as a “how do you do”. They murdered over 90 percent of the Taino population during the next 60 years.
➤ Winston Churchhill who stole rice and wheat from the people of Bengal during WW2, resulting in a famine that killed up to 3 million Bengali’s.
Writer, Margaret Kimberly, summed up the emotional appeal for White Supremacists with racist statues and symbols with this remark,
https://www.blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-churchill-columbus-and-leopold-fall-down
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More on the crimes of Winston Churchill:
View at Medium.com
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The backlash against “chaos” has already began… or was always there.
Steve Bannon, the apostle of “heritage”, goes to Europe to revive the true roots of the continent.
See, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/24/opinions/steve-bannon-conservatives-extremism-europe-mammone/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion
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“Your objection would be just as valid for the statues being pulled down.”
This is where I interpreted the insinuation. Considering that Lee stated he didn’t want statues, the MLK statute argument is redundant.
That exception reflects why it is an educational tool. That section should be amended as well, but that wouldn’t change prison sentences or excessive punishments for crime.
What do you mean by more than?
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Why don’t you piss off back to Africa, if you feel so oppressed and if it is so awful living amongst white people!
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@lucinda639
Why don’t you go back to Europe if it is so awful living in the same country as Black people?
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We will get them back, just you wait…we will put them 10 feet taller.
And if you tear down our statues, you have no right to complain if we decide to tear down yours. Take an eye for an eye. Martin King and Nelson Mandela represent the dispossession of Whites and our loss of power in the societies our ancestors created for us, just as Columbus represents displacement of the Indians.
Maybe the statue of King can be replaced with a statue of Ian Smith?
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They attack our heritage of honor because they have no heritage of their own that is worth anything.
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@Afrofem – those immigrant communities have NO RIGHT to live in our homelands.
Ring that bell, shout for joy, the White Man’s day is here…
Gather all those “equals” up and herd them on the pier
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@ Paul Kruger
So Whites in the Americas, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa should go back to Europe, do I have that right?
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@ Paul Kruger
What are you going on about now? Feeling irrelevant are you?
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“They attack our heritage of honor because they have no heritage of their own that is worth anything.”
When are you going to get around to honoring these black and nonwhite benefactors of your race?
1) Edmond Albius who discovered the best method to pollinate vanilla orchids after white ‘geniuses’ failed to do from the 1500s to 1841 when he was 12 years old.
2) The Andean genius or geniuses who discovered the use of guano as a natural fertilizer. You wouldn’t be here writing bs if your ancestors hadn’t stolen that knowledge, they would have died of starvation. Curare is another ‘gift’ of the Indigenes of the Americas that prevented early deaths among you.
3) Norbert Rillieux, the great chemical engineer “…between 1834 and 1843, when he patented it. The multiple-effect evaporation system that he invented addressed both the spillage that resulted from transfer and the uneven application of heat, as well as making the process safer for workers. The system utilizes a vacuum chamber or a container with reduced air to lower the boiling point of the liquids. Inside this several pans are stacked to contain the sugarcane juice. As the bottom pans heat, they release steam to transfer heat to the pans above. The heat is more easily controlled than in the Jamaican Train method because one source is needed, at a lower temperature, for multiple pans of sugarcane juice. This prevents the sugar from being burned and discolored. As the workers do not have to transfer the liquid, sugarcane is not spilled, and they are at a reduced risk for burns.”
4) Jan Matzeliger. “After five years of work, Matzeliger obtained a patent for his invention of an automated shoe laster in 1883.[2] A skilled hand laster could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day.[3] Matzeliger’s machine could produce between 150 and 700 pairs of shoes a day, cutting shoe prices across the nation in half.[2]”
5) Horace King. architect and builder.
6) Jean-Baptiste Lislet Geoffroy (also known as Geoffrey L’Islet) (23 August 1755 – 8 February 1836) was a French astronomer, botanist and cartographer.
7) Robert Frederick. ” Robert led the internal team, Amazon Anywhere, that focused on making it possible to interact with Amazon Anywhere, Anytime, on Any device. After becoming the technical co-founder of Amazon Web Services and setting the stage for Amazon to become profitable leveraging the Cloud, Rob started Sirqul to create an Intelligence of Things (IoT) ecosystem on top of the cloud that also works at the edge. Sirqul has numerous partners that span Retail, Smart Buildings, Autonomous Vehicles, and Robotics.”
8) Thomas Mensah. “Thomas O. Mensah (born around 1950) is a Ghanaian-American chemical engineer and inventor, who contributed to the development of fiber optics and nanotechnology.[1] He has 14 patents, and was inducted into the US National Academy of Inventors in 2015.[2][3] In 2017, Dr. Mensah served as Editor-in-Chief of the textbook Nanotechnology Commercialization, published by John Wiley & Sons.[4] ”
9) Christopher J. Chetsanga, a low IQ Zimbabwean who, somehow, managed to discover two enzymes involved in the repair of DNA ( Formamidopyrimidine DNA Glycosylase, which removes damaged 7-methylguanine from DNA (1979).[6]
DNA cyclase, which recloses imidazole rings of guanine and adenine damaged by x-irradiation (1985).[7])
10) Oyekunle Ayinde “Kunle” Olukotun is a British-born Nigerian[1] computer scientist who is the Cadence Design Systems Professor of the Stanford School of Engineering, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Pervasive Parallelism Lab.[2] Olukotun is known as the “father of the multi-core processor”, and the leader of the Stanford Hydra Chip Multiprocessor research project.[3][4] Olukotun’s achievements include designing the first general-purpose multi-core CPU,[5] innovating single-chip multiprocessor and multi-threaded processor design,[6][7] and pioneering multicore CPUs and GPUs, transactional memory technology and domain-specific languages programming models.[8][9][10] Olukotun’s research interests include computer architecture, parallel programming environments and scalable parallel systems, domain specific languages and high-level compilers.[11][12]
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