[St Charles Owl]

It truly amazes me how people can get themselves worked up about a statue of some xxxx monster being hauled down, or some hoodies being looted from H and M but go straight to the next page when it comes to black people being murdered by police or discriminated against.

Its 2020 for gods sake.

I totally agree with your sentiments on this, but a line has to be drawn somewhere and it's just before violence kicks in. I can't think that anyone believes that racism will diminish when violence is used. In fact violence will only lead to even more entrenched extreme positions. Hauling down a statue does no good in the long run - it's a good photo opportunity, no more.

Much of Bristol's prosperity over the centuries was based on the slave trade, as were many British cities' wealth because of the cotton trade, a prime user of slaves. Perhaps we should be boycotting the clothing industry to make a stand against racism. British Imperialism was responsible for the parliament/transport/education systems in many emerging democracies in what used to be called "The Third World". Perhaps we should be tearing up railway lines in these countries as a protest againt British Imperialism.

Forced arranged marriages, female genital mutilation, modern slavery are all practiced in BAME communities - all conveniently ignored in the current BLM frenzy. The last country to officially abolish slavery was an African country - within the last 50 or 60 years. So what, let's all blame the UK for it's part.

Finally, the USA had a black President for 8 years and it made absolutely no difference to racist attitudes in the US. It'll take decades of hard work and tolerance to reduce racism, never mind erase it.

Black Lives DO Matter, as do all others.

I agree with most of that. The one thing I would say about these monuments is that we cannot erase what happened in the past, but at the same time we have to be honest about the things the person in the monument did, both good and bad. If they invented something that aided society then mention it, but at the same time if their wealth came from slavery mention that as well. Over here its a little different, the statues being torn down here are the ones of Confederate Generals, a group of men who committed treason against the US and ultimately lost, you don't memorialise people like that in the country that defeated them!!! There is no Yamamoto statue at Pearl Harbour for very good reasons!!!

8 years of a black President did make a difference, unfortunately the next President was the polar opposite of Obama and as a consequence of his rhetoric he has stirred a racist base up again that admittedly hadn't gone but had been forced by public pressure and by moral norms to become silent, we have now have nearly 4 years of them being emboldened again coupled with a Republican Party who have left their morals at home so that they do not encounter the wrath of Trump!!