George Floyd - America so f**ked up

Portraying him in a saint-like fashion isn't either. 

I'm a little bit behind on this fast moving thread but everything seems fairly well behaved so far - just a reminder before anything that could happen does happen, that we would appreciate if we keep everything respectful and not too personal!

Cheers

See to me that's selective use of history, as in I'm going to look back and condemn the nsdap for their treatment of others in the first part of the 40's.  But will ignore that when I want to buy a new car or posh clothes etc., the simple fact is if those companies hadn't used slave labour they would not be here today.
How about the nails in corn street should they be removed as slave money would have been banged down on them a few times

So whats your opinion on the enslavement of white people in britain.
Intersting your bit about your reasons for not joining barclays, so you din't support aparthied, but you decided to align yourself like many others with a terrorist.

Oi sod off this is a mod free zone     

Yeah maybe, I openly admit that I’m thinking of the stereotype of the Bristol I see today when I spend time there. Bristol, it seems to me, has turned into an extension of Shoreditch and it leaves me a bit uneasy as I don’t recognise much Bristolian culture from my youth, it seems to have appropriated the gentrification of London and thus is in danger of losing it’s own sense of identity, imo. That’s a story for another thread though!

Go for it.

I haven't actually.
I'm actually a defender of Churchill against many people of the same political thinking as me because Churchill was a very flawed character. I think people should be more educated on stuff other than his role in the defence of our country. He shouldn't just be recognised as a "brave, brave leader" as he is currently, but then again he shouldn't be thought of as someone who was inherently evil and caused the deaths of millions of Indians purely due to his racial beliefs, he was somewhere in the middle. And I think it's hypocritical to point out the flaws of someone like Churchill and not someone like Gandhi for instance. 
What you're describing is not reality, let's say there is a father; Tom and a son; Joshua. Tom and Joshua are walking through and see the statue, Joshua asks about it and Tom gives a detailed history of Edward Colston, cons and pros, of things that he contributed to the city but also things that he did that were negative, like his exploitation of slaves. Joshua then forms a balanced view in his own head and evaluates using his own moral compass with his own values, Edward Colston as a character.
This is not reality.
In reality Joshua asks who's that man and Edward Colston is portrayed with all pros and no cons. Then Joshua grows up and teaches his son about it, with it being easily avoidable to miss all of the cons of Edward Colston. I would be shocked to learn that the majority of Bristol's inhabitants knew before today that Edward Colston himself accrued the majority of his wealth off of the back of exploiting and trading slaves. 

Allowing people to desecrate property (public or private) whether or not we like the context behind or not - if the masses consider it abhorrent - is an extremely dangerous route to go down. Where do you draw the line? I jokingly posted we could tear down Ashton Gate because as gasheads we don't particularly agree with it. Of course, that wouldn't be an appropriate thing to do. I hope those responsible are bought to justice. Even if you agree with it being taken down I would hope you would agree that this is not the right way to go about it. As for the social distancing on show when we're in the middle of a global pandemic, that needs not to be mentioned.

I think the best thing that could have happened is the statue was peacefully and appropriately pulled down, and for it to be located in a permanent exhibit in the city museum where the context and history of himself and the slave trade could be discussed and used a prop for educating our children about the origins of our city.

I hope it can be recovered so that something along those lines can be done.

I shall simply say my thoughts entirely!