Politics: This Map Shows The Racist Statues That Need To Be Destroyed Next [@ToppleTheRacists]
If The U.K Wants To Honour & Memorialise Racist Men Then It Is Indeed A Racist Country.
Following the historical triumph by Bristol’s Black Lives Matter protestors last weekend, when the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was pulled from its plinth and toppled in the harbor. Stop Trump Coalition – a group established to protest the US president’s visit to the UK in 2017 – launched a new website called Topple the Racists, which shows you which colonialist monuments need toppling near you.
They say, “We believe these statues and other memorials to slave-owners and colonialists need to be removed so that Britain can finally face the truth about its past – and how it shapes our present. Click a marker on the map to see more historical detail and links to local petitions”
Each statue has a location, a brief description of the person it memorialises, as well as external links to petitions that call for the statues to be removed. If the U.K is truly a country that is not racist then the removal of these statues should not be a problem. In the meantime, see the locations of the London statues that memorialise men who profited from the transatlantic slave trade and the bondage of black and brown people.
Sir Francis Drake
Location: Goldsmiths University, Deptford Town Hall, SE14 6AF
Sir Francis Drake made at least three royally sponsored trips to West Africa to kidnap Africans and sell them. Elizabeth I awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581 which he received on the Golden Hind in Deptford.
Admiral Robert Blake
Statue Location: Goldsmiths University, Deptford Town Hall, SE14 6AF
Robert Blake was responsible for trafficking the first waves of enslaved people to and from the Caribbean; installing the plantation system in Jamaica; and the massacres in Drogheda (1649).
William Beckford
Statue Location: Basinghall Street, London, EC2V 7HH
William Beckford inherited the sole interest in 13 sugar plantations in Jamaica and owned approximately 3,000 enslaved Africans.
Thomas Guy
Statue Location: Guys Hospital, SE1 1XJ
Thomas Guy was a major investor in the South Sea Company which was engaged in the slave trade, buying slaves from the Royal African Company. In particular, the company had contracts to kidnap people and deliver them to Jamaica.
Check out the GUAP Arts & Culture section, to discover new art, film, and creative individuals.