We need to talk about...
In London last weekend police cleared the streets of protesters who claimed they were there to protect statues and monuments, and not simply out on a jolly day to drink lager, get sunburn, and fight the police.
Ed Clowes - business journalist for the Telegraph - posted images on his Twitter page showing evidence of a protest that resembled the aftermath of a weekend music festival site without any lavatories. As journalists and the public followed the protesters, more images of rubbish followed, and one of a man urinating by the memorial of PC Keith Palmer who was killed in the line of duty while preventing a knife-wielding maniac entering the Palace of Westminster in 2017; so much for honouring the life of someone who dedicated sixteen years in the Met, and served in the Royal Regiment Artillery.
Some commentators, including LBC’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, helpfully pointed out to disgusted pedants that the man’s golden stream of expelled lager was aimed next to the memorial, not on it, and so therefore that was okay, while Conservative MP Tobias Elwood, who served for six years in the Royal Green Jackets, and was first on the scene to try and save PC Palmer’s life, described the image of the man urinating by the memorial as abhorrent.
We can assume that Andrew Banks feels a wee bit stupid after flooding the pavement. The memorial is relatively small and if I’d drunk sixteen pints I might have made the same error. It’s easy to be morally superior sitting at home within easy reach of the lavatory.
The subject of which statues should be kept or removed is igniting fierce conversations around the world, and threatens to overshadow why the Black Lives Matter protests are necessary and urgent. During the recent BLM protests in the UK, the words ‘was a racist’ were spray-painted onto the plinth of the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, and in Bristol the statue of former slaver Edward Colston was toppled, pushed along the streets, and thrown into the harbour. Whether you agreed or not with the protesters actions, the gesture of Colston’s statue being forcibly removed and unceremoniously dumped into the water was a powerful, and ironic, symbol. Some of Colston’s considerable income was earned transporting slaves for the Royal African Company. As many as 100,000 people were taken and dehumanised into “property” with the RAC logo branded into their chests. In the eyes and minds of the slavers they were no longer a mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother. As many as 20,000 died of illness, suicide, or murder during the voyages, and their bodies were thrown overboard.
Those who want to see the statue of Churchill removed often cite his role in the Bengal famine as a genocidal one, while those who want to see it remain cite the defeat of the Nazis and fascism. While the latter is plain enough, the former appears cloudier.
Genocide is an intentional act of killing a particular group. In minutes of cabinet ministerial meetings Churchill is recorded as making the following statement to the War Cabinet in 1943:
“The hard pressures of world-war have for the first time for many years brought conditions of scarcity, verging in some localities into actual famine, upon India. Every effort must be made, even by the diversion of shipping urgently needed for war purposes, to deal with local shortages….”
Churchill, bound by the ongoing war effort, and what appears to be at best a bureaucratic table tennis match, writes in a personal telegram to Roosevelt:
“I am seriously concerned about the food situation in India….Last year we had a grievous famine in Bengal through which at least 700,000 people died. By cutting down military shipments and other means, I have been able to arrange for 350,000 tons of wheat to be shipped to India from Australia during the first nine months of 1944….I have had much hesitation in asking you to add to the great assistance you are giving us with shipping but a satisfactory situation in India is of such vital importance to the success of our joint plans against the Japanese that I am impelled to ask you to consider a special allocation of ships to carry wheat to India from Australia….We have the wheat (in Australia) but we lack the ships…”
Roosevelt replied: “[I am] unable on military grounds to consent to the diversion of shipping….Needless to say, I regret exceedingly the necessity of giving you this unfavorable [sic] reply.”
This isn’t a defence of Churchill’s racism, which was widely known, but an examination of a terrible moment in which millions died. The failure might be in part because of failures in policy, administration and the ongoing war more than intentional racist act. Contrast that with Cromwell’s presence in Ireland from August 1649 to June 1650 where his gruesome efforts in trying to incorporate Ireland into the English Commonwealth “led on to the most ruthless process of ethnic cleansing that there has ever been in western European history, with the arguable exception of the Norman Conquest.”
In Cromwell’s own reports sent to the Speaker of the English Parliament:
“I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town, and, I think, that night they put to the sword about 2,000 men.”
In Bristol, Colston is honoured for his benevolence with roads, places, and a music venue Colston Hall named after him. The notion his statue could remain in a public space is certainly more problematic than Churchill’s. It is difficult to know how much of Colston’s wealth came from slavery because he kept no personal papers. His philanthropy is, however, widely known through his funding of almshouses and education for poor boys. When asked why he hadn’t married, Colston’s reply was “every helpless widow is my wife and her distressed orphans my children.”
This leads us to Norwich, which has a small number of statues of people including Edith Cavell, Sir Thomas Browne, and Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, but none that commemorates black people. This might change as a result of a collective effort by people supporting a campaign recently launched to raise a statue of former Norwich City football player Justin Fashanu.
Justin Fashanu was, and still is, the only openly gay player to have played in the top league of English football. On what would have been his 59th birthday, he was inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame. The campaign to raise a statue honouring him is, of course, inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests. It is an act that begins to redress the balance of history as seen through the very long lens of the white patriarchy, and begins a relevant and important debate concerning which people are honoured and memorialised. One commentator suggested this was “jumping on the BLM bandwagon”. Well, yes, it is, and it’s jumping on it for a reason.
For those of us who don’t experience racism and prejudice as an intrinsic part of life, now is a good time to ask whether harmless banter actually is, and examine the obvious moral flaw in asserting that police tactics leading to the death of a black person are justified because the person was a criminal, therefore a criminal forever they will be. It seems the New Testament isn’t available with Amazon Prime and is therefore yet to reach the bookshelves in some homes.
It is appalling that in the year 2020, fifty one years after humans set foot on the Moon, George Floyd became another unarmed black man killed by a white police officer who knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. In March, Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by police who had entered her apartment late at night using a ‘No Knock’ search warrant. She was not wanted by the police for anything. It’s easy to see why black and brown people are tired, let alone angry, because of police brutality. The bandwagon is necessary, relevant, and important to hop on until it reaches at least one positive destination on this journey. It is this that forms the foundation of the campaign, while also informing the debate surrounding its proposal. This debate might be indicative of future ones concerning statues already in public spaces, and those yet to be displayed.
While the Justin Fashanu campaign has attracted many supporters, it has also attracted criticism. Some cite John Fashanu offering to pay his brother £75,000 not to come out as a reason against, although they tend not to mention his deep personal anguish at treating his brother this way. Some have pointed towards Justin being charged for sexual assault during his time in Elliott City, Maryland. This one is contentious and it would be foolish to ignore. Being charged with a crime is a serious matter. Although the charges were dropped, for some the accusation alone is enough to confirm guilt. An extract of Fashanu’s suicide note posted online - in which he stated sex was consensual, the person had threatened to extort money from him, and he feared a fair hearing because he was gay and black - was countered with the McCarthyesque reply: “well, he would say that wouldn’t he?”.
If this year alone is a measure of racist attitudes of some police officers towards black people, then going back over twenty years it’s not difficult to imagine Fashanu’s anxiety towards police and members of the judiciary in a state where the criminalization of same-sex sexual relations was only repealed in February this year, seventeen years after the Supreme Court ruled those laws unconstitutional. In 1992 a jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of beating Rodney King for a reported fifteen minutes. King’s injuries were numerous, severe, and included skull fractures, and permanent brain damage. When watching the video footage of Mr King lying on the floor and being repeatedly hit with batons for over a minute, and then the jury’s verdict is akin to saying: “oh, it’s okay. The police were using necessary force”, it’s not difficult to imagine Fashanu’s lack of faith in the judicial system, or why the LA riots took place.
In support of the statue campaign the Norwich Evening News wrote:
“Fashanu fought his entire life against hate, battling discrimination over his race and sexuality. [He has] become a symbol of hope and inspiration for so many groups in our society.”
In addition to my previous piece published in the Eastern Daily Press this seems a good foundation to begin how we proceed.
If you need to reach out and talk, contact The Samaritans: 116 123
If you think you’ve been a victim of a sexual crime: https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-and-support/get-help
References
Churchill: https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/did-churchill-cause-the-bengal-famine/#_ftn6
Colston: http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/bristolrecordsociety/publications/bha096.pdf
Cromwell:
http://www.olivercromwell.org/wordpress/?page_id=1837
Maryland same-sex laws: https://www.washingtonblade.com/2020/02/25/maryland-house-votes-to-repeal-sodomy-law/