In the wake of an African-American dying as a result of police brutality in the US, people in various parts have taken to the streets to protest systemic racism. Protesters in the UK have pulled down statues of leaders and public figures who have known to be racist.
Several protesters have gathered at Oriel College in Oxford University, demanding that the statue of Cecil Rhodes be taken down.
Councillors of the University earlier backed the campaign to remove it as it was "incompatible" with the city's "commitment to anti-racism". Protesters said that Rhodes, a 19th Century businessman and politician in southern Africa, represented white supremacy and is steeped in colonialism and racism. The campaign to take down Rhodes' statue has been reinvigorated after the recent Black Lives Matter protests across the world following the death of George Floyd. Floyd died after of Derek Chauvin a police officer knelt on Floyd's neck till he suffocated.
On Tuesday, protesters in Oxford knelt on one knee, put their fists in the air and kept silent for 8 minutes and 46 seconds the amount of time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck.
Some other statues and monuments have been vandalised and protesters are demanding that these reminders of racism be taken down.
In Bristol, protesters pulled down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston. In Scotland's capital of Edinburgh, protesters have been demanding that the statue of Henry Dundas be taken down. Dundas put forward an amendment to a bill which would have abolished slavery in 1792, calling for a more gradual approach to be adopted, which allowed slavery to be continued for 15 more years.
Other statues of those who purported slavery and were defaced in the recent protests, as a result, includes that of King Leopold II in Antwerp, Belgium, Robert E Lee of Virginia in the US, who was a commander of the pro-slavery Confederate States Army and former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill's statue in London, who was known to be a racist political head.
