By Ranting Panda, 28 June 2020
Statues across the world are being attacked, torn down or defaced by people protesting against the history of the person represented by the statue. Oftentimes, the statue represents some head of state or war-time leader, perhaps a founding figure for a particular city. In most cases, these people perpetrated or gave rise to abhorrent practices, such as genocide, slave trading, or racism.
Many people who are defending the statues do not even know who the statue represents, let why they have a statue or the terrible history of the person immortalised in stone. However, while we certainly should not revere people who committed genocide, such as Churchill, or who traded in slavery, such as Edward Colston, tearing down their statues may not be the best approach to raising awareness of their heinous histories. It's an educational opportunity lost to remove those statues.
Although, those who so vehemently defend the statues in the name of history, would have to then agree with replacing the statues with monuments, so the victims are honoured rather than the perpetrators. More on that later.
In relation to statues, it would be much better to add a plaque to the statue explaining that person's heinous deeds for all the world to see. This may prove a tad more educational that relegating them to the dustbin of history. At least this way, people can easily and quickly read a short summary of Tweet-length proportions which should reach those who won't ever go near a history book. Instead of tearing down statues, historian Max Barton believes it is time to 'educate not eliminate' (Parkes 2020).
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| Plaque added to John Batman statue in 1992 (CAMD 2017) |
In acknowledgement of history, keep the statues & add plaques that clearly state the true history, rather than the revisionist one that many statues depict.
Below are examples of statues that could do with being updated.
- Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- Responsible for the genocide of around four million people in Bengal during World War 2, after knowingly and deliberately exacerbating a famine by redirecting grain to British and other allied troops ... because their lives were more important than Indians, whom he described as a 'beastly people with a beastly religion' (Tharoor 2016, pp. 132, 158-160). Churchill's exacerbation of this famine was recently confirmed through a scientific study conducted into causes of famines in India (Mishra et al 2019, p. 2080). Churchill's policies included confiscating rice and boats to deny the Japanese from accessing them ... but the Bengalis were the ones who suffered (Safi 2019).
- Edward Colston, British businessman
- Colston was a wealthy and influential merchant who donated much of his wealth to charity. He is recognised as one of Bristol's 'most virtuous and wise sons', however, part of his wealth was built through the transatlantic slave trade and exploitation (Parkes 2020).
- Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales
- while Macquarie had been relatively sympathetic to Indigenous peoples, he became frustrated with the ongoing violence between settlers and Aborigines. Macquarie ordered his troops to 'punish' local Aborigines, resulting in the mass murder of 14 men, women and children. Macquarie's principle aim was to 'strike the greater terror into the Survivors' by hanging the bodies of grown men from trees, which his troops complied with by hanging up the bodies of two men and one woman. Later, their heads were cut off and sent to Edinburgh University. Macquarie then lied to British authorities by claiming the group was given the opportunity to surrender, when they weren't. (ABC Fact Check 2017).
- Robert Towns, businessman, mariner, founder of Townsville, Queensland
- Robert Towns was a wealthy businessman who founded Townsville and contributed to infrastructure projects in Queensland. He was also involved in 'blackbirding', which involved kidnapping South Sea Islanders from their homelands and trafficking them to Australia to be enslaved in forced labour on cane and banana farms (Haxton 2017). The South Sea Islander community is calling for the statue to include a plaque and a statue to pay tribute to the people who were trafficked to Queensland and forced to work in the canefields (Haxton 2017).
It's interesting that people get so upset about a statue being defaced or torn down, yet still don't care about the destruction of culture by government and big business. For instance, where was the outrage when Rio Tinto blew up two 46,000-year-old Indigenous sacred sites in June 2020. While Rio Tinto apologised for it, the fact is that the law allows this to happen with ministerial approval. Indigenous groups have long been requesting the legislation be amended to protect sacred sites (Smoleniec 2020).
It is understandable that people would want statues removed. Nancy Pelosi explained why she supported the removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus, 'Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed' (Macardle 2020).
It is a form of revisionism to ignore the history of a person who was responsible for abhorrent actions, such as genocide, slavery, war crimes, rape, racism. Those who defend the statues of such people while ignoring their heinous behaviours are no different to the societies of the time who empowered such people and who condoned such behaviours. Let's take the opportunity to correct this revisionism and ensure that people never forget the blood that was spilled, the lives that were destroyed by these 'heroes', often in the name of their countries and often while building their own wealth and power.
While tearing down statues is about acknowledging history, the banning or censorship of movies is about ignoring it, covering it up. For example, cancelling movies such as Gone With the Wind and Song of the South because of their racist content. WarnerMedia pulled Gone With the Wind from its streaming service, HBO Max, with the explanation that 'these racist depictions were wrong then, and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible', and that it would return with a 'discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions', while on its return, the film 'will be shown as it was originally created, because to do otherwise, would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed'. The film has since returned with an introduction that places the film in its historical context and describing that 'when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color' and that it sentimentalised 'a history that never was'. Jacqueline Steward, history professor, provides the introduction, and has stated that 'If people are really doing their homework, we may be poised to have our most informed, honest and productive national conversations yet about Black lives on screen and off'. (Blackwelder & Stone 2020).
Taking the opportunity to explain this is much better than banning it. If movies are banned, should we then ban the books they are based upon? We've seen where that level of censorship leads. It is a fascist act to ban art. If we want to ensure fascism never returns, then let's not start with a fascist act.
It is understandable that people would want statues removed. Nancy Pelosi explained why she supported the removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus, 'Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed' (Macardle 2020).
It is a form of revisionism to ignore the history of a person who was responsible for abhorrent actions, such as genocide, slavery, war crimes, rape, racism. Those who defend the statues of such people while ignoring their heinous behaviours are no different to the societies of the time who empowered such people and who condoned such behaviours. Let's take the opportunity to correct this revisionism and ensure that people never forget the blood that was spilled, the lives that were destroyed by these 'heroes', often in the name of their countries and often while building their own wealth and power.
While tearing down statues is about acknowledging history, the banning or censorship of movies is about ignoring it, covering it up. For example, cancelling movies such as Gone With the Wind and Song of the South because of their racist content. WarnerMedia pulled Gone With the Wind from its streaming service, HBO Max, with the explanation that 'these racist depictions were wrong then, and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible', and that it would return with a 'discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions', while on its return, the film 'will be shown as it was originally created, because to do otherwise, would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed'. The film has since returned with an introduction that places the film in its historical context and describing that 'when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color' and that it sentimentalised 'a history that never was'. Jacqueline Steward, history professor, provides the introduction, and has stated that 'If people are really doing their homework, we may be poised to have our most informed, honest and productive national conversations yet about Black lives on screen and off'. (Blackwelder & Stone 2020).
Taking the opportunity to explain this is much better than banning it. If movies are banned, should we then ban the books they are based upon? We've seen where that level of censorship leads. It is a fascist act to ban art. If we want to ensure fascism never returns, then let's not start with a fascist act.
Without a doubt, many movies are racist, but to bury this, ignores the injustices that were perpetrated against black people, or anyone seen as racially inferior. To purge art of everything that contains racist content would obliterate much of the historical record. Rather than eliminating history, we should be educating people about how such racist attitudes developed, why they were so wrong and what should be done to address the systems of racism that still exist today.
Sanitising history will not end racism or sexism, whether it be individual, systemic (institutional and structural), or casual. Far better to educate people on how poorly others were treated because of their race or gender, and then understanding why those behaviours were so wrong, and the importance of civil rights. Certainly, call out racism in all its forms; make it unacceptable.
It is understandable that people would want to ban movies that have racist content, but it is a band-aid solution that will not stop racists from being racist. Instead, it may well empower them as they argue about 'political correctness gone mad'. Far better to educate and highlight just how unacceptable and atrocious such attitudes are.
Of course, when too much outrage is not enough, along comes the Murdoch press to inflame the situation. Australians from coast to coast were outraged ... apoplectic even ... when the Herald Sun reported that Aboriginal woman and Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe was 'demanding' that the state of Victoria should change its name so it is no long associated with 'someone who’s caused harm or murdered people'. This article did nothing but stir up racism and foment anti-Greens animosity. The story was a beat up. Lidia Thorpe had not called for Victoria to be renamed. Instead, the suggestion was put forward by the Herald Sun itself and she was asked to comment (Lewis 2020). When she said a name change could be considered, that was enough for the Herald Sun to twist that to sound like an Aboriginal Greens Senator was demanding that Victoria be renamed. And the predictable hate speech and vile attacks ensued, as the Herald Sun knew they would.
Better than maintaining statues to racists, mass murderers and slavers, would be to construct monuments that remember the victims. People who defend the statues and claim that tearing them down is to deny history, must surely be in favour of remembering history through such monuments.
An example of a moment that ensures the victims are remembered and history is not forgotten or revised, is shown in the preservation of the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz (Donadio 2015). More than 1.3 million people were murdered there, 90% of whom were Jewish, but Nazi victims also included dissenters, socialists, communists, the unhealthy, LGBTIQ+, and those who were considered 'racially inferior', which in addition to Jews, included Roma and people of colour.
The need to remember this history was highlighted recently, when President Donald Trump's campaign released an ad attacking Antifa by placing an inverted red triangle behind the word 'Antifa'. The Nazis had a classification system to identify demographics of its victims; the inverted red triangle was used to identify political prisoners (US Holocaust Memorial Museum n.d.).
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| Howtofightantisemitism.com (2020) |
Not that this is the only Nazi symbol appropriated by the Trump re-election campaign. They are also selling 'America First' shirts with a logo that features an eagle with talons gripping an American flag in a circle, which bears a striking resemblance to the Nazi symbol that featured an eagle in a similar pose, whose talons were gripping a swastika in a circle (Elliott 2020).
'When Pastor Niemöller was put in a concentration camp we wrote the year 1937; when the concentration camp was opened we wrote the year 1933, and the people who were put in the camps then were Communists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers. Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians - "should I be my brother's keeper?" Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. - I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it's right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn't it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? -- Only then did the church as such take note. Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren't guilty/responsible? The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated the occupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers. … I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa!'
Let's not forget our history, let's not deny our history.
A common adage repeated ad nauseam by many conservatives is that 'people should stop living in the past'. This is usually directed at people protesting racism. The people who say this, are also often the same ones vehemently defending statues of some long-dead genocidal, slave-trading, rapist racist. They obviously don't see the irony. They also don't understand that racism is still alive and destroying lives today. They don't understand that today's systemic racism exists because of the systems established years ago by these 'heroes' they defend and the revisionist history they believe. This is why we must never forget the past and it musts be used to help destroy existent systems of racism and discrimination that perpetuate the pain and suffering of victims here and now! Racism is built on the past and it is present in today's systems and in the attitudes of many people who clearly do not understand the harm it causes.
Honour the victims, expose the perpetrators.
References
ABC Fact Check 2017, 'Fact check: Was Lachlan Macquarie a mass murderer who ordered the genocide of Indigenous people?', 10 November, viewed 22 June 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-27/fact-check-did-lachlan-macquarie-commit-mass-murder-and-genocide/8981092?nw=0.
Blackwelder, C & Stone, M 2020, ''Gone With the Wind' returns to HBO Max with intro detailing historical context', Good Morning America, 24 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/gone-with-the-wind-returns-hbo-max-commentary-71171554.
CAMD 2017, Melbourne’s John Batman statue, Council of Australasian Museum Directors, 1 September, viewed 20 June 2020, https://camd.org.au/melbournes-john-batman-statue/.
Donadio, R 2015, 'Preserving the ghastly inventory of Auschwitz', The New York Times, 15 April, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/arts/international/at-auschwitz-birkenau-preserving-a-site-and-a-ghastly-inventory.html.
Elliott, J 2020, 'Trump 2020 campaign accused of ‘ripping off’ Nazi eagle logo', Global News, 2 July, viewed 4 July 2020, https://globalnews.ca/news/7130932/trump-nazi-eagle-logo-america-first/.
Haxton, N 2017, 'South Sea Islanders say statue of Townsville founder 'whitewashes' slave history', ABC News, 24 August, viewed 21 June 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-24/townsville-statue-whitewash-slave-history-islanders-say/8838984.
HowToFightAntiSemitism.com 2020, 'Trump campaign uses Nazi concentration camp symbols in Facebook ads', 17 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.howtofightantisemitism.com/timeline/trump-campaign-uses-nazi-concentration-camp-symbols-in-facebook-ads.
Lewis, C 2020, 'Anatomy of a News Corp beat up', Crikey, 22 June, viewed 25 June 2020, https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/06/22/anatomy-of-a-beat-up-news-corp-lidia-thorpe/.
Macardle, M 2020, 'Columbus Statue to Be Removed from California State Capitol after 137 Years', National Review, 17 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.nationalreview.com/news/columbus-statue-to-be-removed-from-california-state-capitol-after-137-years.
Mishra, V, Tiwari, AD, Aadhar, S, Shah, R, Xiao, M, Pai, DS, Lettenmaier, D, Drought and Famine in India: 1870-2016, Geophysical Research Letters, 28 February 2019, Vol.46(4), pp.2075-2083.
Niemöller, M 1947, 'Of guilt and hope', analysis by Harold Marcuse, University of South Carolina Beaufort, 17 September 2004, viewed 27 June 2020, http://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/projects/niem/Niem1946GuiltHope13-16.htm.
Parkes, P 2020, 'Who was Edward Colston and why is Bristol divided by his legacy?', BBC News, 8 June, viewed 21 June 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-42404825.
Safi, M 2019, 'Churchill's policies contributed to 1943 Bengal famine – study', The Guardian, 29 March, viewed 21 June 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/winston-churchill-policies-contributed-to-1943-bengal-famine-study.
Sargent, G 2020, 'Leaked document makes Trump campaign’s use of Nazi-era symbol look worse', The Washington Post, 20 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/19/leaked-document-makes-trumps-use-nazi-era-symbol-look-worse/.
Smoleniec, B 2020, 'After blasting 46,000-year-old Indigenous caves, Rio Tinto backs calls for changes to WA heritage laws', SBS News, 5 June, viewed 25 June 2020, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/after-blasting-46-000-year-old-indigenous-caves-rio-tinto-backs-calls-for-changes-to-wa-heritage-laws.
Tharoor, S 2016, Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India, Kindle edition, Scribe Publications, London, UK.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum n.d., 'Classification system in Nazi concentration camps', Holocaust Encyclopedia, viewed 27 June 2020, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/classification-system-in-nazi-concentration-camps.
Updated 4 July 2020
