Black Lives Matter

How many more statues need to come down? 
How many buildings need to be renamed?
Is this the beginnings of real change, or another false dawn?

Hopefully things will move forward, but I feel were going to go through a lot of recriminations, and finger pointing before real progress is made, but the signs are looking good just now.

It's got to involve action rather than just words.

Bristolians had been calling for ten years to have the statue of the slave-trader, Colston, taken down...promises were given but no action materialised. 

We have a PM who has used racial slurs on at least ten occasions, most famously employing the terms "piccaninnies with water-melon smiles", letter-boxes" and "bank robbers" to decribe people of colour. He has to lead by example. The Home Office has to show that apologies for Windrush were sincere.

Patel's words, like Trump's, were likely to stir emotions rather than calm them, so I fear for events next weekend. 
There are many statues in our cities that are already being talked about as unfit to be left in place in this modern age.

Meanwhile The Mail's focus was on the violence and the incident where a policewoman got knocked off her horse....with the peaceful majority and the purpose of the marches swept into an insignificant aside.

Another one gone.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52977088

I see a lot of people going on abut all lives matter on facebook and dragging the likes of Lee Rigby and that poor girl killed in Queens Park into it and saying why did nobody riot when they were killed? 

Black people do have the right to protest about incidents like this but they haven't done themselves any favours with the rioting, looting and general violence that's come with it. That's whats alienated a lot of people 

Of course all lives matter but as a white man i've never had to put up with racism on a regular basis and i can see why the death of George Floyd would  cause such tension even in the UK.

You've made an important point there Mr Pig,and that is that the support and changes that are needed will not come quickly, or easily, if the violence and looting don't stop. We can all understand why people of colour are angry and frustrated, but they have to learn to engage, something they find very difficult, and then we have to not only listen, but to do what is best for both, or all, sides. Its not going to be fixed overnight.

Have to remember that the marches involve thousands and thousands of multi-ethnic law-abiding citizens glaobally. 

I would say that it's the authorities that "have to learn to engage", having ignored years of perfectly reasonable, civilised appeals for decency, understanding and action to prevail in our modern society.

Social media and papers like the Mail give an unbalanced, distorted view of history and of the current situation, though, of course, any examples of violence against the police are abhorrent and undermine the message.

What do we think of films like Gone with the Wind and TV programmes like Little Britain being taken down so that they are not available to watch?

Don't think i've ever watched Gone with the wind so no idea what the issue is. Little Britain had the Bubbles character which i think was meant to be a big black woman so they've been accused of blacking up.

Leigh Francis (aka Keith Lemon) apologised for him doing similar on Bo Selecta but i think personally it's all over the top as times were different and i don't remember it being an issue at the time.


Are we going to ban everything with even the remotest whiff of a racial issue in now? There'll be nothing left to watch!

Norpig wrote:Don't think i've ever watched Gone with the wind so no idea what the issue is. Little Britain had the Bubbles character which i think was meant to be a big black woman so they've been accused of blacking up.

Leigh Francis (aka Keith Lemon) apologised for him doing similar on Bo Selecta but i think personally it's all over the top as times were different and i don't remember it being an issue at the time.


Are we going to ban everything with even the remotest whiff of a racial issue in now? There'll be nothing left to watch!

I've got a box set of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and it's amazing what they got away with. And what about this?

Norpig wrote:Don't think i've ever watched Gone with the wind so no idea what the issue is. Little Britain had the Bubbles character which i think was meant to be a big black woman so they've been accused of blacking up.

Leigh Francis (aka Keith Lemon) apologised for him doing similar on Bo Selecta but i think personally it's all over the top as times were different and i don't remember it being an issue at the time.


Are we going to ban everything with even the remotest whiff of a racial issue in now? There'll be nothing left to watch!

As you say, Mr Pig, times have moved on and that's the point:- black servants and slaves had no voice and no representation. 

Now they do, and our consciences are pricked by the likes of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther KIng....and in fictional entertaining form, by the likes of To Kill a Mockingbird, Roots, Green Book etc..... so that what was unchallenged at the time has slowly(!!) become an issue that requires attention and action.

The tricky bit arises when trying to judge those who present as heroes as well as racists. Britain's past contains many such people who divide opinion.

Norpig wrote:Don't think i've ever watched Gone with the wind so no idea what the issue is. Little Britain had the Bubbles character which i think was meant to be a big black woman so they've been accused of blacking up.

Leigh Francis (aka Keith Lemon) apologised for him doing similar on Bo Selecta but i think personally it's all over the top as times were different and i don't remember it being an issue at the time.


Are we going to ban everything with even the remotest whiff of a racial issue in now? There'll be nothing left to watch.

I do miss Noddy and Mr Golly.

Yeah, i know we as a country dont really have much defence regarding the deeds of our forfathers, and this times were, in retrospect truly awful.

However, and i'm not trying to justify slavery here so please dont think so for one minute, Liverpool was built on slavery (second or first highest slave trade), do we raise liverpool to the ground?
Or do we be mature abiut it all and say, we cannot change the past, merely affect the future, and continue to educate the population of all creeeds and colours into where we all have gone wrong in the  past and where we can change as a society for the better.

I'm not for removing churchills statue, merely supplying information worded accordingly to say that the guy had racist undertones and he is reveered not for his racism but as a prime minister who steered us through our darkest hours.

In the 1960-70's i was as a white kid, bullied and beaten up by black kids on a regular basis, called lots of names etc. When my parents tried to sell their house, we accepted an asian chaps offer and immediately our house was graffiti'd in bloody awful racist words and sh1t aimed at my parents for selling.

Its all been a melting pot for many years, and one i profess to rather like, but the slogan 'black lives matter' is incorrect....... ALL LIVES MATTER! we just need, as society, to include all, and treat everyone as we would like to be treated ourselves..... fairly. 

As John Lennon said..... Imagine!

I don’t think it’s that complicated to be honest. Nobody’s arguing to tear up history, just not to celebrate historical figures with clearly racist records. I’m afraid that does mean we need to at least have a conversation about Churchill.

we are what we are, not what we were, and trying to delete our history is wrong. We should learn from it, not delete it.

I haven’t heard anyone wanting to delete our history.

T.R.O.Y. wrote:I haven’t heard anyone wanting to delete our history.

You need to watch/listen to more television programmes.

I'm relatively angry at all this like most people I suspect.

How dare they spray paint our Winston Churchil.

Black lives matter? Shouldn't it be ALL lives matter?

It won't be long before it turns in mass rioting with the whites and black people.l

A can of worms has opened with a bunch of twats with a government that has no balls to sort out.

Shame the police don't have tear gas to disperse the crowds!

Hi KP, good to see you back