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       #Post#: 2--------------------------------------------------
       Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: June 29, 2020, 11:52 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://xyz.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_9029.jpeg
       OLD CONTENT:
       The recently ongoing movement to remove colonialist statues
       started with the Rhodes Must Fall campaign:
       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Must_Fall
       --- Quote ---
       > Rhodes Must Fall (#RhodesMustFall) was a protest movement that
       began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at
       the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil
       Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global
       attention[2][3] and led to a wider movement to "decolonise"
       education across South Africa.[3][4] On 9 April2015, following a
       UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed.
       >
       > Rhodes Must Fall captured national headlines throughout 2015
       and sharply divided public opinion in South Africa. It also
       inspired the emergence of allied student movements at other
       universities, both within South Africa and elsewhere in the
       world.
       --- End Quote ---
       then in the US acquired an understandable emphasis on removing
       Confederate monuments:
       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Confederate_monuments_and_memorials
       --- Quote ---
       > In the wake of the Charleston church shooting in June 2015,
       several municipalities in the United States removed monuments
       and memorials on public property dedicated to the Confederate
       States of America. The momentum accelerated in August 2017 after
       the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.[1][2][3]
       The removals were driven by the belief that the monuments
       glorify white supremacy and memorialize a government whose
       founding principle was the perpetuation and expansion of
       slavery.[4][5][6][7][8] Many of those who object to the
       removals, like President Trump, claim that the artifacts are
       part of the cultural heritage of the United States.[9]
       --- End Quote ---
       though also including some other statues:
       hyperallergic.com/430694/san-francisco-racist-statute/
       but elsewhere retains its primarily anti-colonialist focus:
       www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/22/toppling-statues-nelsons-column-should-be-next-slavery
       www.ft.com/content/7ae28cf4-8e09-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d
       www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/06/canada-halifax-statue-edward-cornwallis
       www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/02/captain-cook-statue-removed-new-zealand-mountain-maori-protests/
       The most common rightist criticism of this movement is to accuse
       it of being an attempt to somehow "erase history", which is of
       course nonsense. Far from wanting to erase history, we are
       positively generating public interest in history by revisiting
       who built the statues, what the statues mean to their builders,
       why they deserve to beremoved, and indeed why it took so long
       for calls for their removal to begin. We are certainly not
       trying to make people forget the existence of the historical
       figures portrayed by the statues. If we were, we wouldalso be
       trying to ban teaching of colonial history, which not even
       rightists accuse us of (in fact they tend to accuse us of the
       opposite: of excessively promoting the teaching of colonial
       history!). No, a statue of a historical figure represents
       celebration or veneration of that figure. That is what we are
       opposed to: a colonialist statue still standing in a supposedly
       post-colonial country implies that the country has not yet
       really been decolonized, at least not in spirit. The truth is
       that rightists to this day remain proud of the colonial era,
       which iswhy they are defending their statues. Some are honest
       enough to admit this, others are not, but these two groups stand
       together in defending their statues.
       What makes the rightist position all the more absurd is that
       many of these rightists claim to be "nationalists". By defending
       colonialist statues, they prove they are anything but.
       Nationalism is anti-colonialism. We who call for the removal of
       colonialist statues are the true nationalists, and we should be
       proudly taking back this label (among others):
       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Must_Fall#Supporting_student_who_made_Pro-Hitler_and_anti-Semitic_remarks
       --- Quote ---
       > On 25 April 2015, Mcebo Dlamini, then president of the
       Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of Wits University (a
       South African public research university), stated in a Facebook
       post that he “loves Adolf Hitler” … Dlamini later declared
       during a radio interview on PowerFM that “Jews are devils,” a
       remark which led the South African Jewish Board of Deputies to
       lay criminal charges of hate speech against him.
       --- End Quote ---
       Nevertheless, I suggest that in order to sidestep the rightist
       invective as efficiently as possible, we could consider (as an
       alternative to removing entire statues) just decapitating each
       statue and displaying the disembodied head hanging adjacent to
       the rest of the statue. This would visually prove beyond any
       doubt that we are not trying to make people think that the
       colonialists (and, by inference, the colonial era)never existed,
       but merely declaring what we think of colonialists.
       As for the issue of legality, the basic line of reasoning is
       adequately covered as follows:
       www.dailytarheel.com/article/2018/10/maya-little-trial-1021
       --- Quote ---
       > Holmes tried to build a case that Little’s actions — dousing
       the statue and its pedestal in red paint and her blood — were
       justified under the necessity defense, which asserts that
       citizens can violate laws that contradict the big-picture wishes
       of the Constitution.
       >
       > “In our history, people have had to commit crimes in order to
       raise the issues,” Holmes said. “Because the laws and the
       government’s complicity in racism has required them to break the
       law.”
       >
       > Holmes linked Little’s case to that of the Friendship Nine, a
       group of black men who were arrested for staging a sit-in at a
       segregated lunch counter in South Carolina in 1961.
       >
       > “It sometimes becomes necessary to breaksome sort of technical
       minor law in order to vindicate the broader values of the
       Constitution,” Holmes said.
       >
       > In 2015, the FriendshipNine's convictions were ceremoniously
       overturned. At court, the judge — the nephew of the judge who
       originally sentenced the group — said, "We cannot rewrite
       history, but we can right history.”
       >
       > Holmes said henoted comparisons in the cases to argue that
       Little’s charges were the same sort of situation, civil
       disobedience that would be considered favorably in the eyes of
       history, like the illegal assistance northerners gave to slaves
       on the Underground Railroad, a violation of the Fugitive Slave
       Act.
       >
       > The Equal Protection Clause has also beencited in lawsuits
       pertaining to courthouses’ display of the Confederateflag, but
       those cases were civil whereas Little’s was criminal. The
       combination of the necessity defense in conjunction with the
       Equal Protection violation is new, Holmes said.
       --- End Quote ---
       Please use this topic not only to discuss the issue, but to post
       news updates on particular statue removal campaigns, and to
       point out currently untargeted statues that you would like to
       see removed. If we could eventually build up full lists of
       colonialist statues in every country, that would be awesome.
       ...
       Here is a good one:
       www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2018/10/18/The-Stone-Mountain-carving-plays-a-complicated-role-in-the-race-for-Georgia-governor/stories/201810180211
       --- Quote ---
       > Stacey Abrams, a Democrat and former State House minority
       leader, is the firstblack woman in the country to win a major
       party’s nomination for governor, and it was Ms. Abrams, 44, who
       injected Stone Mountain into the contest.
       > ...
       > In a flurry of posts on Twitter, Ms. Abrams declared the Stone
       Mountain carving “a blight on our state,” and called for it to
       be removed.
       > ...
       > her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, haschosen a different
       focus, winning his party’s primary with a series of provocative
       ads in which he brandished a shotgun and said he might use his
       own pickup truck to deport “criminal illegals.”
       >
       > Mr. Kemp, who is white, has, like President Donald Trump,
       denounced the movement to take down Confederate monuments. In
       July, as the Atlanta NAACP planned aprotest calling for the
       removal of the Stone Mountain carving, Mr. Kempsaid on Facebook
       that he would protect it from “the radical left.”
       > ...
       >
       > The idea to carve the side of the mountain was hatched in
       1914. The next year, the Klan, which had faded after first
       emerging during Reconstruction, was revived atop the mountain
       with a cross burning.
       >
       > Proponents of the carving had strong Klan ties, with one early
       booster, Helen Plane, even suggesting that Klansmen be included
       in the carving. The group, she wrote, “saved us from Negro
       domination and carpetbag rule.”
       >
       > The carving effort stalled during the Great Depression, but in
       1954, MarvinGriffin, a candidate for governor, stumped on a
       promise to uphold segregation in the wake of the Brown v. Board
       of Education ruling — and to finish the carving.
       >
       > After Mr. Griffin’s election, the state bought the land in
       1958, writing into law that it was meant to be operated as a
       “perpetual memorial” to the Confederacy.
       --- End Quote ---
       This is what the carving looks like:
  HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Stone_Mountain%2C_the_carving%2C_and_the_Train.jpeg
       Cananyone seriously deny that the mountainside would have looked
       infinitely better if left untouched? What, then, does this say
       about theaesthetic sense of those responsible for this overt
       vandalism? The Stone Mountain carving is a symbolic microcosm of
       Western civilization, whose very existence is a form of
       continuous rudeness and disrespect towards everything around it.
       Removing the carving now, of course, will not restore the
       mountainside to what it used to be before the carving was made,
       and so be it. Let the indelible scar on the stone stand as a
       brutally honest reminder of the blight upon the world that
       Western civilization has been. Nevertheless, erasing the carving
       itself will at least show that we have had enough of tolerating
       its hubris in thinking that its existence actually improved the
       world when it could not be moreaesthetically clear that nothing
       could be further from the truth.
       (Offtopic, here is an example of how to make mountainsides look
       better:
       agrifarmingtips.com/terrace-step-farming-inca-advantages-and-disadvantages/
       )
       ---
       www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6462695/Mayor-removes-highly-valuable-Gainsborough-painting-office-links-slave-trade.html
       --- Quote ---
       > Cleo Lake took down the 'dull and dated' portrait of Lord
       Nugent from the walls of City Hall in Bristol.
       >
       > Paintedby the artist Thomas Gainsborough, the portrait shows
       Lord Nugent holding a copy of the 1750 Act for the Regulation of
       the Slave Trade, which he helped pass through parliament.
       > ...
       > Earlier this year, the Mayor took down a portrait of the
       Bristol slave trader Edward Colston, whose ships transported
       nearly 100,000 Africans to the Americas.
       --- End Quote ---
       And as always we get to learn a bit more about history in the
       process:
       --- Quote ---
       > WHAT WERE LORD NUGENT'S LINKS TO THE SLAVE TRADE?
       >
       > The politician Robert Craggs Nugent (1709-1788) represented
       Bristol in the House of Commons from 1754 until 1774.
       >
       > By 1782, he had become the longest continually-serving member
       of the Commons, and so became the Father of the House.
       >
       > He was involved in the 1750 Act of Parliament.
       >
       > The1750 Act dissolved the Royal Africa Company and transferred
       its assets to the African Company of Merchants - the slave
       trading posts that existed in what is now Ghana.
       >
       > This was an important step in turning the transatlantic slave
       trade from a lucrative one for Bristol merchants into a trade
       that took place on an industrial scale.
       --- End Quote ---
       --- Quote ---
       > Edward Colston: Bristol's beloved son and wealthy slave trader
       >
       > Edward Colston was born to a wealthy merchant family in
       Bristol, 1636.
       >
       > After working as an apprentice at a livery company he began to
       explore the shipping industry and started up his own business.
       >
       > He later joined the Royal African Company and rose up the
       ranks to Deputy Governor.
       >
       > TheCompany had complete control of Britain's slave trade, as
       well as its gold and Ivory business, with Africa and the forts
       on the coast of west Africa.
       >
       > During his tenure at the Company his ships transported around
       80,000 slaves from Africa to the Caribbean and America.
       >
       > Around 20,000 of them, including around 3,000 or more
       children, died during the journeys.
       > ...
       > Aa statue commemorating Colston in Bristol, a plaque reads:
       'Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most
       virtuous and wise sons of their city.'
       >
       > There are at least 20 roads, schools, pubs, businesses and
       buildings named after Edward Colston, and the slave trader is
       still commemorated and celebrated in the city.
       --- End Quote ---
       WE WILL REPLACE YOU!
       ---
       www.independent.co.uk/voices/poll-shows-brits-are-proud-of-colonialism-clearly-they-havent-heard-of-these-colonial-crimes-a6823151.html
       --- Quote ---
       > When we are taught about Empire we are rarely given the
       gruesome details that counter the idea of Britain being a
       benevolent Imperial power. Thisis partly due to a whitewashing
       of history curriculums. This was only exacerbated by attempts
       from Michael Gove to turn the history syllabus into nationalist
       propaganda. To add to this views put forward by pop historians
       such as Andrew Roberts serve to glorify Empire.
       > ...
       > David Cameron ruled out apologizing for the slave trade and
       the Amritsar massacre. This is in spite of the fact that Cameron
       and his wife have ancestral links to the slave trade.
       --- End Quote ---
       The more statues pulled down, the more chances to raise
       awareness of history. It is happening, even if slowly:
       www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/14/racist-gandhi-statue-removed-from-university-of-ghana
       --- Quote ---
       > Students at the university welcomed the decision to remove the
       statue. “It’s a massive win for all Ghanaians because it was
       constantly reminding us of how inferior we are,” Benjamin Mensah
       told Agence France-Presse.
       >
       > The head of language, literature and drama at the Institute of
       African Studies, Obadele Kambon, said the removal was an issue
       of “self-respect”.
       >
       > “If we show that we have no respect for ourselvesand look down
       on our own heroes and praise others who had no respect for us,
       then there is an issue,” he said.
       >
       > “If we indeed don’t show any self-respect for our heroes, how
       can the world respect us? Thisis victory for black dignity and
       self-respect. The campaign has paid off.”
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       One McKinley statue down:
       www.times-standard.com/2019/02/28/mckinley-statue-removed-from-arcata-plaza/
       Good job!
       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley#Peace_and_territorial_gain
       --- Quote ---
       > McKinleyalso pursued the annexation of the Republic of Hawaii.
       The new republic, dominated by business interests, had
       overthrown the Queen in 1893 when she rejected a limited role
       for herself.[159] ... McKinley biographer H. Wayne Morgan notes,
       "McKinley was the guiding spirit behind the annexation of
       Hawaii, showing ... a firmness in pursuing it";[162] the
       President told Cortel, "We need Hawaii just as much and a good
       deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny."[163]
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       As you may know, Portugal has a verylong history of colonialism,
       and a history of being very proud of it. In the 1940s, during
       the nationalist dictatorship of the Estado Novo, they erected a
       "Monument to the Discoveries" (Padrão dos Descobrimentos):
       This disgusting 52-meter-high colossus celebrates the main
       figures associated with Portuguese colonialism. The square right
       in front of it has a similarly colossal compass rose and a world
       map, gifts of none other than Apartheid South Africa.
       In a country such as this, public talks of decolonization are
       almost non-existent. But there are things in the works, and I
       mentioned that monument for this recent exhibition about Africa
       being held in it:
       www.padraodosdescobrimentos.pt/pt/evento/visita-conversada-com-2/
       The significance of such a thing being held in that specific
       monument should not be lost on us.
       ---
       globalnews.ca/news/5081694/sir-john-a-macdonald-statue-vandalized-once-again-in-downtown-montreal/
       --- Quote ---
       > Activists calling themselves #MacdonaldMustFall group claimed
       responsibility, saying the vandalism comes on the International
       Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination promulgated by
       the United Nations and was done in solidarity with other
       worldwide actions against racism.
       --- End Quote ---
       Keep the pressure on!
       theconversation.com/john-a-macdonald-should-not-be-forgotten-nor-celebrated-101503
       --- Quote ---
       > even by historical standards, a story by Rachel Décoste in the
       Huffington Post shows that Macdonald was “way more racist than
       his contemporaries.”
       > ...
       > while Macdonald was prime minister, the Métis were attacked
       twice, the Canadian army led an unprovoked attack against Chief
       Poundmaker’s people, many First Nations and Métis leaders were
       jailed (with a number of them dying in jail or shortly after
       they were released), Louis Riel was hanged for treason even
       though he was an American citizen, the largest mass execution in
       Canadian history occurred with the hanging of eight Cree and
       Assiniboine men in North Battleford, Sask. The Indian Actwas
       amended and became much more oppressive and punitive and a
       starvation policy was implemented.
       --- End Quote ---
       Further reading:
       rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/jesse/2015/01/10-crimes-john-macdonald
       www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/01/13/should_we_really_be_celebrating_sir_john_a_macdonalds_birthday.html
       ---
       www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bs-md-hostile-indians-sign-20190430-story.html
       --- Quote ---
       > A historical marker at Fort Garrison in Stevenson has been
       removed after officials received a complaint regarding its use
       of the term “hostile Indians.”
       > ...
       > It is indicative of weighted language and bias that some
       Americans have toward Native American history, Harley said, and
       no trepresentative of the fact that the original colonists
       forcibly displaced the native population, mostly through
       violence and force.
       > ...
       > the bishop brushed aside the idea of preserving the marker’s
       historical significance, even in the sense that it represents a
       period of time in which these sentiments were more widely
       accepted.
       >
       > In response, he quoted a West African proverb that says, “The
       lion’s story will never be known as long as the hunter is the
       one to tell it.”
       --- End Quote ---
       (Next, Israel will talk about "hostile Palestinians".....)
       
       #Post#: 4--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: June 30, 2020, 12:17 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       OLD CONTENT contd.
       Going hand in hand with removal of colonialist monuments is
       building of anti-colonialist monuments:
       www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-48724128
       --- Quote ---
       > A monument honouring the "tremendous contribution" of the
       Windrush generation is to be erected in London.
       > ...
       > Events are taking place across the country on Saturday to mark
       the first National Windrush Day.
       > ...
       > BaronessFloella Benjamin, chair of the Windrush Commemoration
       Committee, said: "Having a Windrush monument located at Waterloo
       Station where thousands of Windrush pioneers - including
       children like myself - first arrived inLondon, will be a
       symbolic link to our past as we celebrate our future."
       >
       > Janice Irwin, from community group Ageless Teenagers,
       described the plans as "fantastic", but also "long overdue", and
       said itwas "a little strange" that it would be built at Waterloo
       Station, and not Brixton where many people from the Windrush
       generation settled.
       >
       > Some of the Windrush generation were wrongly told after they
       had lived in the UK for decades they were in the country
       illegally.
       >
       > Many lost their right to work or get NHS treatment, while
       others were detained or deported.
       >
       > Thethen Home Secretary Amber Rudd apologised last year for the
       deportationthreats, calling the scandal "wrong" and "appalling".
       >
       > An estimated 500,000 people now living in the UK have been
       called the Windrush generation.
       >
       > TheHMT Empire Windrush first arrived at Tilbury Docks, Essex,
       on 22 June 1948, bringing workers from Jamaica, Trinidad and
       Tobago and other islands, as a response to post-war labour
       shortages in the UK.
       --- End Quote ---
       www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/sydney-statues-of-colonial-leaders-in-spotlight-again/11285380
       --- Quote ---
       > There are 25 publicly funded statues of the colony's early
       leaders around the CBD.
       >
       > Amongthem are Captain Cook, Governor Arthur Phillip, Lachlan
       Macquarie, Queen Victoria, explorer Matthew Flinders and even
       his cat Trim.
       > ...
       > "It'sbreathtakingly hard trying to feel proud walking around
       seeing statues of people that my old people have told me have
       declared martial law on us."
       --- End Quote ---
       So far so good. But then:
       --- Quote ---
       > Mr Moran said a statue of a prominent Indigenous leader would
       be a small but significant step towards reconciliation.
       --- End Quote ---
       It's the colonialist statues that have to be taken down,not
       merely other statues added. No non-colonialist statues should be
       built before the last colonialist statue has been removed, in
       the same way that we lower the colonial flag prior to raising
       our own flag. Otherwise subjects the non-colonialist symbol to
       the indignity of sharing space with the colonialist symbol.
       ---
       Medals count as statues:
       rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/bill-seeks-to-remove-stain-of-wounded-knee-massacre-medals/article_ef12b305-8252-5f80-8541-7f3cfd015c2d.html
       --- Quote ---
       > Newfederal legislation seeks to “Remove the Stain” from the
       Medal of Honorby rescinding 20 medals that were awarded to
       soldiers who participated in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.
       > ...
       > The massacre happened on Dec. 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee
       Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South
       Dakota. A force of 490 U.S. soldiers — armed with rapid-fire,
       wheel-mounted artillery guns — was attempting todisarm a camp of
       about 370 Lakota Sioux people when a shot rang out andchaotic
       firing ensued.
       >
       > A total of 31 soldiers died during the encounter or afterward
       from their wounds, compared to hundreds of NativeAmericans.
       Although precise estimates of Native American deaths vary, the
       Remove the Stain Act says there were 350 to 375 Native American
       fatalities, nearly two-thirds of whom were unarmed women and
       children.
       > ...
       > Afterthe massacre, some of the Native American dead were left
       on the frozen ground for several days before a military-led
       burial party dumped the bodies in a mass grave. Today, that
       grave is marked by a small, weathered monument that was erected
       in 1903.
       >
       > The Army awarded 20 Medals of Honor — the nation’s highest
       military award — to soldiers who participated in the massacre.
       > ...
       > Thelegislation, if passed by Congress and signed by the
       president, would require the names of the 20 medal winners to be
       removed from the government’s official Medal of Honor Roll.
       > ...
       > The findings in thenew legislation also mention the historical
       writings and statements of Maj. Gen. Nelson Miles, who was not
       present at the massacre but commanded all of the Army’s
       departments west of the Mississippi River atthe time.
       >
       > Drawing from a letter Miles wrote in 1891, the legislation
       quotes him stating, “I have never heard of a more brutal,
       cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee.”
       --- End Quote ---
       Western civilization itself is a stain on the New World that
       needs removing.
       (Notonly should the medals be rescinded, but all known
       descendants of the soldiers who participated in the massacre
       should be prohibited by the state from reproducing.)
       ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RIXrfz2x1E
       Visitor comment: I agree with most of what he's saying, only the
       notion that people who never owned slaves should pay
       "reparations" to people who never were slaves, in apology for
       slavery existing - something that no one today was even alive to
       see - is retarded. I thinka much better course of action, one
       that won't actually deepen ethnic division, is to remove these
       monuments and to shift the cultural forces of the US towards
       Univeralism rather than tribalism.
       90sRF response: He wasn't necessarily demanding reparations, but
       rather pointing out that the same people unwilling to pay
       reparations gladly pay for stuff to celebrate historical slave
       owners. If people who had nothing to do with slavery themselves
       solely cared about keeping their own money, they shouldn't be
       willing to pay for either. Unwillingness to pay only for the
       former can therefore be deduced to be caused by something other
       than merely people who had nothing to do with slavery wanting to
       keep their own money.
       ---
  HTML https://summit.news/2019/07/25/video-algerians-tear-down-statue-of-general-de-gaulle-in-france/
       ---
       People are catching on to our way of thinking:
       www.campusreform.org/?ID=13537
       --- Quote ---
       > Aimedat UVA President James Ryan, the petition entitled
       "Remove Monument to Genocide that Welcomes People to UVA," as
       reported by Newsweek, calls for UVA to scrap a statue of George
       Rogers Clark, a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and
       brother of William Clark. The petition has received 450 total
       signatures, just 50 signatures shy of its final goal,at
       publication time.
       >
       > Inscribed text underneath the statue reads “George Rogers
       Clark: Conqueror of the Northwest.”
       >
       > “Remove the statue of George Rogers Clark engaged in genocide
       to a museum where it can be presented as a shameful memory,” the
       petition demands. “The statue of George Rogers Clark at UVA
       depictsa white man on a horse dressed for war….He has other men
       behind him with a gun and a barrel of gun powder, and he appears
       to be reaching back for a gun with his right hand. There are
       four Native Americans in front of him, including one infant.”
       > ...
       > Richard Handler, an anthropology professor at UVA, told the
       Cavalier Daily that the statue could be moved to an exhibit to
       teach people about genocidal behavior against Native Americans.
       >
       > “People need to realize that statues were not handed down from
       God but are human creations of specific times,places and
       peoples,” Handler said. “As our thinking changes, there’s
       absolutely nothing wrong with removing, destroying, or even
       rededicatinga statue.”
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Another history lesson:
       www.startribune.com/the-real-history-of-mount-rushmore/388715411/
       --- Quote ---
       > Thecarved visages are iconic Americana, appearing in a
       gazillion media photos and books and travel features, in
       advertisements and promotions, on U.S. postage stamps in two
       eras, and on South Dakota’s license plate (“Great Faces. Great
       Places.”).
       >
       > But the back story of Mount Rushmore is hardly a rich history
       of a shared democratic ideal. Some seethe monument in the Black
       Hills as one of the spoils of violent conquest over indigenous
       tribes by a U.S. Army clearing the way for white settlers driven
       westward by a lust for land and gold.
       --- End Quote ---
       Actually, violent conquest of minorities by the majority is the
       democratic ideal.
       --- Quote ---
       > As it was in colonial America, the young country’s expansion
       was fueled by “Manifest Destiny” — a self-supreme notion that
       any land coveted by Euro-Americans was, by providence,
       rightfully theirs for the taking.
       > ...
       > Thesculptures were chiseled by an imported Ku Klux Klansman on
       a granite mountain owned by indigenous tribes on what they
       considered sacred land — land that the U.S. Supreme Court said
       in 1980 was illegally taken from them.
       > ...
       > Theso-called “Indian wars” featured the U.S. Army aggressively
       enforcing America’s expansionist resolve by exterminating
       indigenous tribes who sought to stay where they’d always been.
       Indians would lose nearly everybloody battle that would follow.
       > ...
       > the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 granting Lakota autonomy over
       a broad, 60-million-acre region encompassing all of South Dakota
       west of the Missouri River — including the Black Hills — and
       parts of North Dakota and Nebraska.
       > ...
       > But like every tribal treaty before and since, the U.S.
       reneged on its Fort Laramie promises almost immediately by
       failing to prevent small-scale incursions into “The Great Sioux
       Reservation.”
       >
       > Justsix years after Laramie, Gen. George Custer led a U.S.
       Army expedition out of Fort Lincoln (present-day Bismarck, N.D.)
       into the Black Hills toexplore suitable sites for forts and
       routes to them. The action was a purposely provocative treaty
       violation.
       >
       > Anothermission, to assess the presence of gold, would hasten
       the treaty’s demise. Custer rosily trumpeted that gold was
       found, unleashing a torrent of prospectors that the U.S. chose
       not to contain.
       >
       > After a failed bid to buy the Black Hills, the U.S. determined
       to drive out the Lakota and simply take the area’s riches.Fierce
       resistance by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull was worn down by the
       Army’s big guns and well-supplied legions, mostly dispatched
       from Minnesota’s Fort Snelling.
       > ...
       > Atwar’s end, the “victorious” U.S. carved up the Great Sioux
       Reservation by first taking back the Black Hills and broad
       swaths of buffers. The Lakota were forced onto mostly useless
       land, including the Pine Ridge Reservation on South Dakota’s
       southern border.
       > ...
       > On a bitter December day in 1890, a U.S. cavalry contingent
       intercepted a band of ghost-dancing Lakota and attempted to
       confiscate what few guns they had. A shot rang out, and panicked
       soldiers opened fire from all sides, killing150 men, women and
       children before hunting down scores of unarmed Lakota and
       shooting them point-blank as they struggled in the snow.
       >
       > The infamous Wounded Knee Massacre (incredibly, the U.S.
       called it a “battle” and awarded medals to its “heroes”) was the
       last of America’s long, violent campaigns to subdue indigenous
       tribes all across the continent.
       > ...
       > Threedecades after Wounded Knee, in 1923, a South Dakota
       tourism agent advanced an idea for several large sculptures in
       the Black Hills. He enlisted the support of the renowned Gutzon
       Borglum, whose most recent work had been carving Stone Mountain,
       Ga., a grand gathering site for a white supremacist group
       Borglum belonged to, the Ku Klux Klan.
       > ...
       > AtMount Rushmore, you may learn that the sculptures are
       arranged for maximum sun exposure, itself a cruel irony: The
       faces of the four presidents (white conquerors) peer southeast
       toward a reservation housing vanquished Lakota, who mostly live
       out forgotten, impoverished lives in the shadow of their sacred
       Paha Sapa that, legally, still belong to them.
       --- End Quote ---
       This is called democracy.
       The Mount Rushmore sculptures must be destroyed. (They are
       extremely ugly anyway, and utterly ruin the entire mountainscape
       in the most tasteless way possible. In this sense this perfectly
       captures how Western civilization interacts with everything it
       encounters. We should certainly keep photos to show students in
       a post-Western future.)
       ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbCyh_Eew2c
       #Post#: 5--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: June 30, 2020, 1:42 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       OLD CONTENT contd.
       About time:
       news.yahoo.com/long-mexico-icon-spanish-conquistador-040345048.html
       --- Quote ---
       > ALBUQUERQUE,N.M. (AP) — The Spanish conquistador is an image
       found throughout New Mexico, the most Hispanic state in the
       United States.
       >
       > Depictions of men such as 17th century explorers Don Juan de
       Oñate and Don Diego deVargas have long adorned murals and been
       honored at commemorations as symbols of the region's Hispanic
       heritage.
       >
       > In recent years, however, the conquistador and all the
       effigies connected to it have come under intense criticism. Anew
       generation of Native American and Latino activists is demanding
       that conquistador imagery and names be removed from seals,
       schools and streets. They say the figure's connection to
       colonialism and indigenous genocide makes the conquistador
       outdated, highlighting the region's changing attitudes about its
       colonial past.
       >
       > Activists convinced organizers of the yearly Santa Fe Fiesta
       to abandon "the Entrada" — a recreation of de Vargas recapturing
       Santa Fe for the Spanish from Pueblo tribes. Under pressure,
       Santa Fe's public school district also announced it would limit
       when conquistador reenactors visit. This month, the University
       of New Mexico said it's looking for a new design for its
       official seal following protests from Native Americans over
       concerns about the current seal with a conquistador.
       >
       > ElenaOrtiz, president of the Santa Fe chapter of The Red
       Nation, a Native American advocacy group, said the developments
       come after years of activism and public campaigns seeking to
       change perceptions about the conquistador.
       >
       > More needs to be done, she said.
       >
       > "We still have Don Diego parading around," Ortiz said. "This
       symbol of genocide should not be allowed in public schools."
       > ...
       > NickEstes, an American Studies professor at the University of
       New Mexico and co-founder of The Red Nation, said activists want
       state leaders to stop lionizing the region's violent colonial
       past and recognize the history of Native Americans.
       >
       > This fight is worse than the battle over U.S. Civil War-era
       Confederate monuments in the American South, he said.
       >
       > "Atleast there's an acknowledgment of this country's legacy
       with slavery,"Estes said. "This country has not acknowledged its
       legacy with indigenous genocide."
       --- End Quote ---
       therednation.org/
       (They also support BDS:
       therednation.org/2019/09/07/the-liberation-of-palestine-represents-an-alternative-path-for-native-nations/
       )
       ---
       Holidays also count as statues:
       www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-columbus-day-indigenous-people-20191011-3qaxw2omv5csfdgumzh727iavm-story.html
       --- Quote ---
       > Commentary: Will Columbus Day give way to Indigenous Peoples
       Day? More communities are making the shift.
       > ...
       > ColumbusDay is a relatively new federal holiday. In 1892, a
       joint congressionalresolution prompted President Benjamin
       Harrison to mark the “discovery of America by Columbus,” in part
       because of “the devout faith of the discoverer and for the
       divine care and guidance which has directed our history and so
       abundantly blessed our people.”
       >
       > Europeans invoked God’s will to impose their will on
       indigenous people. So it seemed logical to call on God when
       establishing a holiday celebrating that conquest too.
       >
       > Of course, not all Americans considered themselves blessed in
       1892. That same year, a lynching forced black journalist Ida B.
       Wells to flee her hometown of Memphis. And while Ellis Island
       had opened in January of that year, welcoming European
       immigrants, Congress had already banned Chinese immigration a
       decade prior, subjecting Chinese people living in the U.S. to
       widespread persecution.
       > ...
       > Today,cities with significant native populations, such as
       Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles, celebrate either Native
       American Day or Indigenous Peoples Day. And states such as
       Hawaii, Nevada, Minnesota, Alaska and Maine have also formally
       recognized their Native populations with similar holidays. Many
       Native governments, including the Cherokee and Osage in
       Oklahoma, either don’t observe Columbus Day or have replaced
       itwith their own holiday.
       > ...
       > While Columbus Day affirms the story of a nation created by
       Europeans for Europeans, Indigenous Peoples Day emphasizes
       Native histories and Native people — an important addition tothe
       country’s ever-evolving understanding of what it means to be
       American.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbMJ3DGph4
       ---
  HTML https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/columbus-statue-defaced-with-red-paint-near-coit-tower/
       ---
       More success:
       pix11.com/2019/10/14/columbus-park-in-milwaukee-renamed-indigenous-peoples-park/
       ---
       At least they got our message about Ghandi:
       www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/students-call-to-block-manchester-gandhi-statue-because-hes-racist-a4262711.html
       --- Quote ---
       > The city council approved a 9ft bronze statue of the Indian
       independence figure to be erected outside Manchester Cathedral
       to promote peace following the 2017 Manchester Arena terror
       attack that killed 22 people.
       >
       > But a group of students are calling for the council to reverse
       its decision due to Gandhi’s “well-documented anti-black racism
       and complicity in the British Empire's action in Africa".
       >
       > In an openletter, the students demanded a statement
       acknowledging his “racism”, an apology and to reverse the
       decision while redirecting funds to commemorate a black
       anti-racist activist.
       >
       > The group says that Gandhi "saw himself as a ‘fellow-colonist'
       > ...
       > It adds: "In 1905, Gandhi appealed to laws asking Indians to
       fight againstthe amaZulu, and collected funds to finance the
       execution of Black people fighting for self-determination and
       the right to their homeland.
       >
       > "These actions and thoughts are of course not documented in
       his autobiography,but they are well documented throughout his
       earlier correspondence and writings."
       >
       > The letter was posted under the hashtag #GandhiMustFall, which
       was previously used during efforts to remove a similar statue at
       the University of Ghana.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-council-set-to-ditch-australia-day-celebrations-20191105-p537o5.html
       --- Quote ---
       > AustraliaDay celebrations in Sydney's inner west are set to be
       scrapped in favour of the Aboriginal festival Yabun under a
       council proposal aimed at a "more respectful" approach to the
       national holiday.
       > ...
       > LaborMayor Darcy Byrne said moving the Australia Day
       celebrations at Enmore Park to a different date would stop it
       from competing with Yabun and recognise that for Aboriginal
       people it is a day of sadness rather than celebration.
       >
       > "We're seeking to take a more respectful approach toJanuary 26
       and acknowledge that for Aboriginal people it marks the onset of
       colonisation, dispossession, the removal of children and the
       deliberate destruction of language and culture," Mr Byrne said.
       >
       > "There'sa growing number of local communities and people
       across Australia that think the 26th of January should be a
       commemoration not a celebration and the ongoing hurt that
       Aboriginal people feel shouldn't be exacerbated through
       fireworks and festivals."
       > ...
       > The proposal will come before council next Tuesday night and
       is likely to pass with the support of Labor councillors and the
       Greens.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/05/chile-statues-indigenous-mapuche-conquistadors
       --- Quote ---
       > In the urban centre of Temuco, hooded demonstrators lassoed a
       statue of a 16th-century Spanish conquistador last week and
       yanked it to the ground.
       >
       > Cheering bystanders – many wearing the traditional ponchos and
       headbands of the indigenous Mapuche people – stamped on the
       bronze effigy of Pedro de Valdivia and hammered it with wooden
       staffs.
       >
       > In the city of Concepción – which Valdivia found in 1550 – a
       crowd toppled another bust of the Spanish coloniser, impaled it
       on a spike, and barbecued it at the feet of a statue of his
       historical nemesis, the Mapuche chieftain Lautaro.
       >
       > Inthe nearby town of Collipulli, a bronze of General Cornelio
       Saavedra – notorious for leading the bloody 19th-century
       “pacification” of the Mapuche heartland – suffered a similar
       fate.
       >
       > Most dramatically of all, a statue in Temuco of the Chilean
       military aviator Dagoberto Godoy (1893-1960) was decapitated,and
       his head hung from the arm of a statue of the Mapuche warrior
       Caupolicán – now also holding the Mapuche flag, or Wenufoye.
       > ...
       > Theattacks on symbols of Spanish colonial rule have provoked a
       war of words recalling debates in the US over monuments to
       Confederate generals, or in the UK regarding prominent statues
       of slavers and imperialists.
       >
       > Conservative Chilean commentators have branded themacts of
       vandalism and the work of “professional agitators”. Others
       describe an organic – if overexuberant – desire to challenge
       established historical narratives.
       >
       > “These are actions of a very potent symbolism, in rejecting an
       official version that has falsified and grossly airbrushed our
       history,” said Pedro Cayuqueo, a Mapuche writer and historian.
       “There’s something far deeper going on.”
       > ...
       > Such demands are shared by smaller aboriginal groups like the
       Diaguita, an Andean desert people with some 90,000
       self-identified descendants. Protesters in the northern city of
       La Serena likewise felled and burneda statue of the conquistador
       Francisco de Aguirre in late October, replacing it with an image
       of “Milanka”, a Diaguita woman.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Demographic Blueshift harvest:
       news.yahoo.com/democrats-wins-could-help-bring-144259907.html
       --- Quote ---
       > RICHMOND,Va. (AP) — An army of Confederate monuments dots
       Virginia's landscape but some of those statues could soon start
       coming down after Election Day gave Democrats control of the
       General Assembly for the first time indecades.
       >
       > Members of the new legislative majority say they plan to
       revive proposals to make it easier to remove the public displays
       honoring Civil War soldiers and generals in a state that was
       home to twoConfederate capitals. Previous attempts to do so were
       quickly dispatched in the Republican-controlled General
       Assembly, in votes largely along party lines.
       > ...
       > Across the state, officials have catalogued 168 war memorials,
       136 of which are dedicated to Confederate participants in the
       Civil War.
       > ...
       > Another occasional target of criticism is a statue of
       prominent segregationist Harry F. Byrd Sr., a former Virginia
       governor and U.S. senator who's considered the architectof the
       state's "massive resistance" policy to public school
       integration. His figure in bronze stands on the Capitol square.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Vegan edition!
       au.news.yahoo.com/cambridge-university-removes-painting-after-vegans-complain-115638812.html
       --- Quote ---
       > A college at Cambridge University in England has removed a
       17th century painting from the wall of its dining hall after
       students complained it was putting them off their food.
       >
       > Hughes Hall reportedly received complaints from vegan students
       about The Fowl Market, which shows a collection of dead animals
       hanging from hooks.
       >
       > The painting, by Flemish artist Frans Snyders, was on
       long-term loan from the university’s Fitzwilliam Museum but has
       now been taken down.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Warren is in:
       news.yahoo.com/elizabeth-warren-revoking-medals-wounded-knee-massacre-140752378.html
       --- Quote ---
       > WASHINGTON― Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced
       legislation on Wednesday that would rescind 20 Medals of Honor
       awarded to U.S. soldiers who slaughtered hundreds of Lakota
       Indians — mostly women and children ― in the Wounded Knee
       Massacre of 1890.
       >
       > Her bill, the Remove the StainAct, is the Senate version of a
       bill introduced in the House in June byDemocratic Reps. Denny
       Heck (Wash.), Paul Cook (Calif.) and Deb Haaland(N.M.), one of
       two Native American women in Congress.
       > ...
       > “The horrifying acts of violence against hundreds of Lakota
       men, women, and children at Wounded Knee should be condemned,
       not celebrated with Medalsof Honor,” Warren said in a statement.
       “The Remove the Stain Act acknowledges a profoundly shameful
       event in U.S. history, and that’s whyI’m joining my House
       colleagues in this effort to advance justice and take a step
       toward righting wrongs against Native peoples.”
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       www.foxnews.com/politics/virginias-ralph-northam-pushes-to-remove-robert-e-lee-statue-from-us-capitol
       --- Quote ---
       > VirginiaGov. Ralph Northam will push for a bill in the state
       legislature to replace the state's statue of Confederate Gen.
       Robert E. Lee that is displayed in the United States Capitol
       building.
       >
       > The office of the Democratic governor will file a request for
       a bill that would outline the process for removing the statue
       and selecting a replacement.The figure of Lee is one of two
       statues from Virginia in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
       >
       > The filing come after two Democratic lawmakers requested
       Northam replace the statue as part of his legislative agenda for
       the new session that begins in February.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       On a lighter note:
       www.yahoo.com/news/comedians-mock-confederate-sympathizer-steve-174718631.html
       ---
       www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/9/steny-hoyer-wants-roger-taney-bust-replaced-thurgo/
       --- Quote ---
       > House Democrats said Monday they will try to toss the bust of
       former Chief Justice Roger Taney from the collection in the U.S.
       Capitol, saying the Maryland jurist’s role in writing the
       decision in the 1857 Dred Scott ruling makes him unfit for that
       honor.
       > ...
       > “We’re entering a new era where we are reexamining our history
       and beginning to look at our history for its good. And also its
       bad,” Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass said.
       “The removal of Chief Justice Taney’s bust is long overdue in
       our nation’s Capitol.”
       >
       > The Dred Scott decisionconfirmed that the Constitution did not
       recognize slaves as U.S. citizens and therefore they could not
       sue in federal court. It also declared the Missouri Compromise,
       a deal meant to appease escalating tensions over slavery,
       unconstitutional, barring Congress from prohibiting slavery in
       the western territories.
       > ...
       > The push to remove Taney’s bust is part of a larger, national
       debate over removing statues and monuments dedicated to
       historical figures who are seen as controversial by modern
       standards.
       >
       > In Virginia, the Democratic-led state General Assembly passed
       measures over the weekend that rolled back protections for
       Confederate monuments and allows local governments to decide
       whether or not to remove them.
       --- End Quote ---
       #Post#: 6--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: June 30, 2020, 1:59 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       OLD CONTENT contd.
       Good job!
       www.marketwatch.com/story/confederate-statues-and-monuments-become-targets-in-weekend-protests-of-death-of-black-minneapolis-man-in-police-custody-2020-05-31
       --- Quote ---
       > RICHMOND,Va. (AP) — Protesters demonstrating against the death
       of George Floyd, ablack man who pleaded for air as a white
       police officer pressed his knee on his neck, targeted
       Confederate monuments in multiple cities.
       >
       > Astense protests swelled across the country Saturday into
       Sunday morning,monuments in Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee
       and Mississippi were defaced. The presence of Confederate
       monuments across the South — and elsewhere in the United States
       — has been challenged for years, and someof the monuments
       targeted were already under consideration for removal.
       >
       > Thewords “spiritual genocide” in black spray paint, along with
       red handprints, stained the sides of a Confederate monument on
       the University of Mississippi campus Saturday, the Oxford Eagle
       reported. One person was arrested at the scene.
       >
       > Ole Miss administrators, student leaders and faculty leaders
       have recommended moving the statue — installed in 1906 and a
       rallying point in 1962 for people who rioted tooppose the
       university’s court-ordered integration — from a central spotto a
       Civil War cemetery that’s in a more secluded location on campus,
       but the state College Board has delayed action.
       >
       > Critics have saidits display near the university’s main
       administrative building sends a signal that Ole Miss glorifies
       the Confederacy and glosses over the South’s history of slavery.
       >
       > In Charleston, South Carolina, protesters defaced a
       Confederate statue near the Battery, a historic area on the
       coastal city’s southern tip. The base of the Confederate
       Defenders statue, erected in 1932, was spray-painted, including
       with thewords “BLM” and “traitors,” news outlets reported. It
       was later coveredwith tarp, photos show.
       >
       > In North Carolina, the base of a Confederate monument at the
       State Capitol was marked with a black X and ashorthand for a
       phrase expressing contempt for police, according to a photo
       posted by a News & Observer journalist to social media. The word
       “racist” was also marked on the monument, the newspaper
       reported.
       > ...
       > Inthe coastal city of Norfolk, protesters climbed a
       Confederate monument and spray-painted graffiti on its base,
       according to photos posted by a Virginian-Pilot journalist.
       Norfolk is among the Virginia cities that have signaled intent
       to remove their Confederate monuments. In February,state
       lawmakers approved legislation that would give cities autonomy
       todo so.
       >
       > A commission in Richmond, the state capital and what was the
       capital of the Confederacy, recommended removing one of five
       Confederate statues along the city’s famed Monument Avenue.
       Photos posted to social media late Saturday and early Sunday
       showed the bases of at least two statues — those of Confederate
       generals Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart — almost entirely
       covered in graffiti. A statue of Confederate President Jefferson
       Davis had “cops ran us over,” spray-painted on the base. A noose
       had been flung over Davis’ shoulder.
       >
       > Afire burned for a time at the headquarters of the United
       Daughters of the Confederacy, a group responsible for erecting
       many Confederate statues and fighting their removal. The
       building, too, was covered in graffiti, The Richmond
       Times-Dispatch reported.
       >
       > In Chattanooga, Tenn., protesters spray-painted a statue
       Saturday of Confederate Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart on
       Saturday, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
       >
       > In Nashville, Tenn., and in Philadelphia, statues of people
       criticized for racist views, but without Confederate ties, were
       also targeted.
       >
       > Protesters in Nashville toppled Saturday a statue of Edward
       Carmack, a state lawmaker in the early 1900s and newspaper
       publisher who had racist views and wrote editorials lambasting
       the writings of prominent Tennessee civil-rights journalist Ida
       B. Wells, the Tennessean reported.
       >
       > Protesters sprayed graffiti on a statue of former Philadelphia
       Mayor Frank Rizzo, tried to topple it and set a fire at its
       base. Rizzo, mayor from 1972 to 1980, was praised by supporters
       as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating
       against people of color. His 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) bronze
       statue across from City Hall has been defaced before and is to
       be moved next year.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Another one down!
       www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/06/03/Philadelphia-takes-down-statue-of-former-Mayor-Frank-Rizzo/4321591190033/
       --- Quote ---
       > "Thestatue is a deplorable monument to racism, bigotry, and
       police brutality for members of the Black community," Kenney
       said. "The treatment of these communities under Mr. Rizzo's
       leadership was among the worst periods in Philadelphia's
       history."
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       The list so far:
       www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/06/all-the-monuments-to-racism-that-have-been-torched-occupied-or-removed/
       And one more:
       www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-ranger-statue-at-love-field-removed-over-concerns-about-racist-history/2382528/
       Don't stop now!
       ---
       www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/115251/leopold-ii-statue-defaced-at-africa-museum/
       --- Quote ---
       > A statue of Leopold II in the garden of the Africa Museum in
       Tervuren was defaced, VRT reported Thursday evening.
       >
       > Other statues of the former Belgian king had already been
       vandalized in Halle, Ostend, Ghent and Ekeren.
       >
       > Thestatue in Ekeren was set on fire on Wednesday night after
       having been smeared in red paint last weekend. The bust in Ghent
       was also covered inred paint and marked ‘I can’t breathe,’ the
       final words of George Floyd, an unarmed black man whose death at
       the hands of US police has sparked nationwide uprisings over
       police brutality and systemic racism.
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/115178/leopold-ii-statue-set-on-fire-in-antwerp/
       www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/114713/petition-launched-to-remove-statue-of-leopold-ii-in-brussels/
       --- Quote ---
       > As anti-racism protests and demonstrations in honour of George
       Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer put his
       knee on his neckfor minutes in the United States last week, are
       taking place worldwide,a petition to the City of Brussels has
       been launched in Belgium to remove all statues of Leopold II.
       >
       > Under his colonial regime, millions of Congolese people died.
       Lack of reliable sources have made itdifficult to form an
       accurate estimation, but modern estimates range from 1 million
       to 15 million. In recent years, a consensus of around 10 million
       deaths has been reached among historians.
       >
       > “Despite all this, Leopold II is commemorated throughout
       Belgium through statues, ceremonies in his honour, street names,
       and so on. We do not want to erase the past, but we do want to
       erase any homage to this man,” the initiators of the petition
       added.
       --- End Quote ---
       The petition:
       www.change.org/p/ville-de-bruxelles-enlever-toutes-les-statues-en-hommage-%C3%A0-l%C3%A9opold-ii
       ---
       And another goes down!
       us.yahoo.com/news/protesters-topple-confederate-statue-virginia-054712041.html
       ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EklsmK4f-b4
       ---
       Another:
       www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/08/john-b-castleman-statue-louisville-taken-down-cherokee-triangle/5318612002/
       Also, Mayor Sadiq Khan defends the statue topplers:
       ---
       Moving beyond Confederates to colonialists proper:
       www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/09/protesters-rally-in-oxford-for-removal-of-cecil-rhodes-statue
       ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd_0zSlX5XM
       ---
       Previously I suggested:
       --- Quote ---
       > wecould consider (as an alternative to removing entire
       statues) just decapitating each statue and displaying the
       disembodied head hanging adjacent to the rest of the statue.
       This would visually prove beyond anydoubt that we are not trying
       to make people think that the colonialists(and, by inference,
       the colonial era) never existed, but merely declaring what we
       think of colonialists.
       --- End Quote ---
       Now:
       www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/10/christopher-columbus-statue-beheaded-boston-richmond/
       Thank you BLM!
       Also ongoing:
       www.yahoo.com/news/tracker-monument-statue-removal-floyd-protests-confederate-racist-204705465.html
       But best of all:
       www.thesun.co.uk/news/11832425/second-winston-churchill-statue-vandalised-graffiti-blm-protests/
       --- Quote ---
       > The statue of Queen Victoria was left covered in graffiti
       after Black Lives Matter protests in Leeds.
       >
       > Demonstrators sprayed the sculpture with the words “racist”,
       “murderer” and “slave owner”.
       > ...
       > Nelson's Column is another target of anti-racism campaigners
       who want it torn down over links to the slave trade.
       >
       > Campaigners want the column removed as Nelson was fiercely
       opposed to the abolition of the slave trade.
       >
       > Hesupported prominent slavers and tried to prevent the
       abolitionist William Wilberforce - who he dubbed 'damnable' -
       from ending Britain's involvement in the slave trade.
       >
       > Hundreds of statues could be pulled down after protesters drew
       up a “hitlist”.
       >
       > Full list of statues
       >
       > Francis Drake - sea captain and slave trader
       >
       > Drake was the first sailor to complete an entire journey of
       the world in one trip frm 1577 to 1580.
       >
       > He helped his cousin, John Hawkins, capture slaves from the
       Americas and sell them to Spanish plantations.
       >
       > William Gladstone
       >
       > Gladstone is a former British PM whose family owned slaves in
       the Caribbean.
       >
       > He was actively opposed to the anti-slavery movement in
       Britain.
       >
       > When slavery was banned, he helped his father obtain today's
       equivalent of £10.3 million in return for freeing his slaves.
       >
       > Horatio Nelson
       >
       > Aflag officer in the Royal Navy known for inspirational
       leadership and unconventional tactics during the Napoleonic
       wars. He was a supporter ofthe slave trade and actively tried to
       thrwart the abolitionist movementin Britain.
       >
       > James George Smith Neill - monument - Ayr, Wellington Square
       >
       > Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde – Statue - Glasgow, George Square
       >
       > Sir Robert Peel - Statue - Glasgow, George Square
       >
       > Henry Dundas – Statue - Edinburgh, St Andrew's Square
       >
       > Grey's Monument - Newcastle Upon Tyne, Grainger Street
       >
       > William Armstrong - Memorial - Newcastle Upon Tyne, Eldon
       Place
       >
       > Statue of Sir Robert Peel in George Square, Glasgow
       >
       > Robert Peel – Statue - Leeds, Woodhouse Moor
       >
       > Robert Peel – Statue - Preston, Winkley Square
       >
       > Robert Peel – Statue - Bury
       >
       > Robert Peel – Statue - Manchester, Piccadilly Gardens
       >
       > Oliver Cromwell – Statue - Manchester, Wythenshawe Road
       >
       > Oliver Cromwell – Statue - Warrington, Bridge Street
       >
       > Bryan Blundell - Blundell House - Liverpool, Liverpool Blue
       Coat School
       >
       > Christopher Columbus – Statue - Liverpool, Sefton Park Palm
       House
       >
       > William Leverhulme – Statue - Wirral, outside Lady Lever Art
       Gallery
       >
       > Henry Morton Stanley – Statue - Denbigh, Hall Square
       >
       > William Gladstone – Statue - Hawarden, Gladstone's Library,
       Church Lane
       >
       > Elihu Yale – Wetherspoons Pub - Wrexham, Regent Street
       >
       > Black man's head caricature - Ashbourne, Green Man
       >
       > Robert Clive – Statue - Shrewsbury, The Square
       >
       > Robert Peel – Statue - Tamworth, 27 Market Street
       >
       > H Morton Stanley – Park - Redditch, Morton Stanley Park
       >
       > Statue of Oliver Cromwell on Bridge Street, Warrington
       >
       > Oliver Cromwell – Statue - St Ives, Market Hill
       >
       > Ronald A. Fisher – Memorial - Cambridge, Gonville and Caius
       College
       >
       > Sir Thomas Picton – Memorial - Carmarthen, Picton Terrace
       >
       > General Nott - Statue - Carmarthen, Nott Square
       >
       > Thomas Phillips – Memorial plaque - Brecon, Captain's Walk
       >
       > Cecil Rhodes – Statue - Oxford, Oriel College
       >
       > Christopher Codrington – Rename Library - Oxford, Codrington
       Library, All Souls College
       >
       > Rename Rhodes Arts Complex and Rhodes Avenue - Bishop's
       Stortford, Cecil Rhodes
       >
       > Sir Thomas Picton – Statue - Cardiff, Cardiff City Hall
       >
       > Edward Colston – Rename Colston Hall and Colston Street -
       Bristol, Colston Street
       >
       > Henry Overton Wills III – Wills Memorial Building - Bristol,
       University of Bristol
       >
       > Edward Colston – Statue - Bristol, Bristol Harbour
       >
       > Edward Colston - Building - Bristol, Colston Tower, Colston
       Street
       >
       > Captain Edward August Lendy & Captain Charles Frederick Lendy–
       Memorial Statue - Sunbury-on-Thames, Pantiles Court
       >
       > Edward Colston – Rename Colston Road - Mortlake, Colston Road
       >
       > William Beckford – School - London, Dornfell Street
       >
       > Statue of Robert Clive in The Square, Shrewsbury
       >
       > Robert Geffrye – Statue located on the Museum of the Home -
       London, Kingsland Road
       >
       > Francis Galton – Galton Lecture Theatre - London, Gower Street
       >
       > Charles II of England – Statue - London, Soho Square Gardens
       >
       > King James II – Statue - London, Trafalgar Square
       >
       > Robert Clive – Statue - London, Westminster, King Charles
       Street
       >
       > Oliver Cromwell – Statue - London, Houses of Parliament
       >
       > Sir Robert Clayton – Statue - London, St Thomas' Hospital,
       Westminster Bridge Road
       >
       > SirHenry De la Beche – Name on front of Imperial College -
       London, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London, South
       Kensington Campus
       >
       > Christopher Columbus – Monument - London, Belgrave Square
       Garden
       >
       > Thomas Guy – Statue - London, Guys Hospital
       >
       > Thomas Guy - London, Guy's Hospital
       >
       > Robert Milligan – Statue - London, Tower Hamlets, West India
       Quay
       >
       > Sir Francis Drake, Robert Blake, Horatio Nelson – Statues -
       London, Deptford Town Hall, Goldsmiths College
       >
       > Sir Francis Drake, Robert Blake and Horatio Nelson – Statues -
       London, Goldsmiths Uni Deptford Town Hall
       >
       > Statue of Sir Robert Clayton on Westminster Bridge Road,
       London
       >
       > Lord Kitchener – Statue - Chatham, Khartoum Road
       >
       > Admiral Sir Edward Codrington – Plaque - Brighton, Western
       Road
       >
       > William Ewart Gladstone – Plaque - Brighton, Royal Albion
       Hotel
       >
       > Christopher Barry Russell – Office - Cosham, Admiral House
       >
       > Redvers Buller – Statue - Exeter, Hele Road
       >
       > Francis Drake – Statue - Tavistock, Drakes Roundabout
       >
       > Nancy Astor – Statue - Plymouth, Hoe Park
       >
       > Francis Drake - Statue - Plymouth, Plymouth Hoe
       --- End Quote ---
       I like leftists who are methodical about activism.
       Theabove list pertains to just the UK, though. We need similar
       lists for every country affected by Western colonialism. Anyone
       want to volunteer?
       --- Quote ---
       > A group called Topple the Racists want statues across Britain
       removed and street names changed.
       >
       > Theirlist includes some of Britain’s most famous historical
       figures including King James II, Oliver Cromwell and Christopher
       Columbus.
       >
       > Thegroup said: “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.
       > ...
       > “We must learn from, not venerate, this terrible chapter in
       British colonial history.”
       --- End Quote ---
       Very well put. We support this group unreservedly:
       www.toppletheracists.org/
       Keep up the good work!
       --- Quote ---
       > Meanwhile,it has been announced 130 Labour councils across
       England and Wales willbegin reviewing monuments and statues in
       their towns and cities.
       >
       > It means dozens more monuments could be removed.
       >
       > Astatement posted on Twitter said: "LGA Labour have consulted
       with all Labour council leaders, and there is overwhelming
       agreement from all Labour councils that they will listen to and
       work with their local communities to review the appropriateness
       of local monuments and statueson public land and council
       property."
       --- End Quote ---
       I wish success to all involved. To colonialist statues
       everywhere: WE WILL REPLACE YOU!
       ---
       Meanwhile, more successes back in the US:
       www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8408251/Pelosi-demands-Republicans-agree-remove-11-Confederate-statues-Capitol-Hill.html
       (pictures and information about the statues included)
       Also some I missed earlier:
       www.yahoo.com/news/jefferson-davis-statue-torn-down-034826808.html
       www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jun/10/protesters-topple-columbus-statue-minnesota/
       ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFJvIjCkYDU
       #Post#: 7--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: June 30, 2020, 2:09 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       OLD CONTENT contd.
       Recap of earlier years:
       www.yahoo.com/news/pulling-down-statues-racists-africas-070107944.html
       --- Quote ---
       > JOHANNESBURG(AP) — Queen Victoria, Cecil Rhodes, King Leopold.
       Statues honoring these leaders of colonial rule have been pulled
       down over the years in Africa after countries won independence
       or newer generations said racistrelics had to go.
       >
       > New campaigns in the U.S. and Europe are now following
       Africa’s lead. Monuments to slave traders and colonial rulers
       have become the focus of protests around the world, driven by a
       reexamination of historical injustice after the death of George
       Floyd atthe hands of police in the U.S.
       >
       > No protests have been spotted this week around the remaining
       statues in Africa, but several have facedfurious demonstrations
       in the past.
       >
       > A boisterous student-led campaign pressed the University of
       Cape Town to remove a statue of CecilRhodes from the school's
       entrance in April 2015. The statue had been defaced and covered
       in excrement by students protesting against the colonial leader
       who supported white minority rule in South Africa and the
       colonization of the southern African territories named for him,
       Northern and Southern Rhodesia, which later became independent
       Zambia and Zimbabwe.
       >
       > Students celebrated as a crane lifted the statue off its base.
       Now the statue is covered by a tarpaulin at a local army base.
       >
       > Anotherstatue of Rhodes was toppled in Zimbabwe in July 1980,
       a few months after the country became independent. When the
       statue was downed in the capital — then known by its colonial
       name, Salisbury, now Harare — demonstrators cheered and pounded
       it with a hammer.
       >
       > A statue of Britain’s Queen Victoria in Nairobi, Kenya, was
       knocked down and beheaded in 2015 by unknown vandals. The
       headless statue lies next to its plinth in a downtown square.
       >
       > “This statue reminds me of the suffering our forefathers went
       through in the hands of colonialists and whenever we see them,
       the memories are fresh,” Nairobi resident Samuel Obiero said.
       “We need to get rid of them. All over the world they must be
       brought down and all people who suffered due to colonialism need
       to also be saved from all these kinds of memories.”
       >
       > InCongo, a statue honoring colonial ruler King Leopold II of
       Belgium — a copy of the statue that is now the focus of
       demonstrations in Belgium — was pulled down decades ago. Erected
       in 1928, it was ordered taken down by then-dictator Mobutu Sese
       Seko seven years after independence in 1960.
       >
       > The statue made a return in 2005 with an updated plaque,
       intended by authorities to serve as a reminder of the horrors of
       colonial rule. Public outcry was so great that it was taken down
       a day later.
       >
       > Now it stands in a park of colonial monuments set up on the
       grounds of the Institute of National Museums set up by the U.N.
       mission in Congo. Although the park is technically open to the
       public, access is limited because of its proximity to the
       president’s residence in the capital, Kinshasa. The park also
       has statues of explorers Henry Morton Stanley and David
       Livingstone.
       >
       > There have been so many protests against the statue of Paul
       Kruger, an early white ruler of South Africa, in the capital,
       Pretoria, that fencing has been erected tokeep people away from
       it. “Killer Killer” is prominently painted on itsbase.
       >
       > “It just reminds me of, like, what’s written over there,
       ‘Killer Killer,’” said Rogue Wanga, a 19-year-old street vendor.
       "Those people were killers literally. And they never liked us. I
       feel like we should replace it. Maybe a fountain or a Madiba
       (Nelson Mandela) statue wouldn’t hurt.”
       > ...
       > South African author William Gumede said pulling down statues
       is just the first step in a process.
       >
       > “It'simportant for these symbols of injustice to be pulled
       down,” Gumede said. “This has been going on for decades, and we
       are grappling with ridding ourselves of these monuments to
       domination.”
       --- End Quote ---
       But is there less enthusiasm about pulling down colonialist
       statues in former colonies in other parts of the world? If so,
       why? And what can bedone to increase such enthusiasm?
       ---
       Next one:
       www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8418521/New-Orleans-protesters-pull-bust-throw-river.html
       --- Quote ---
       > Black Lives Matter protesters rip down bust of slave owner
       John McDonogh in New Orleans then throw it into the Mississippi
       River
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Continuing:
       www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/06/pioneer-statues-toppled-amid-protests-at-university-of-oregon.html
       --- Quote ---
       > The statues have a history tied to the celebration of white
       conquest, and some students had renewed calls for their removal
       against a backdrop of international protests against racism and
       police brutality.
       > ...
       > ThePioneer was the first statue on the University of Oregon
       campus, according to the university website. During the 1919
       ceremony in which it was dedicated, the president of the Oregon
       Historical Society gave a speech lauding the “Anglo-Saxon race,”
       according to a Hidden History article on the university’s
       library website.
       >
       > The Pioneer Mother, erected in 1932, was the other statue
       removed by protesters. Researcher Brenda Frink told The
       Register-Guard in 2012 that similar pioneer motherstatues
       celebrated “the expansion of American territory and the
       expansion of white occupation of that land.”
       > ...
       > Also on the list was a renaming of Deady Hall, named after
       Matthew Deady, the racist judge who founded the University of
       Oregon law school. Deady was a notedproponent of slavery and
       said only “pure white” men should be allowed to vote, according
       to a report commissioned by university President Michael Schill
       in 2016.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       --- Quote ---
       > activists in northern New Mexico celebrated the removal of
       another likeness of Oñate that was on public display at a
       cultural center in the community of Alcalde. Rio Arriba County
       officials removed it to safeguard it from possible damage and to
       avoid civil unrest ahead of a scheduled protest.
       >
       > A forklift priedthe massive bronze statue of Oñate on
       horseback from a concrete pedestal. Cheers erupted among
       bystanders who saw the memorial as an affront to indigenous
       people and an obstacle to greater racial harmony, though several
       people also arrived to defend the tribute to Oñate.
       > ...
       > The Oñate statues have been a source of criticism for decades.
       >
       > Oñate,who arrived in present-day New Mexico in 1598, is
       celebrated as a cultural father figure in communities along the
       Upper Rio Grande that trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers.
       But he’s also reviled for his brutality.
       >
       > To Native Americans, Oñate is known for having orderedthe
       right feet cut off of 24 captive tribal warriors that was
       precipitated by the killing of Onate’s nephew. In 1998, someone
       sawed the right foot off the statue — an incident that weighed
       in the decisionto stash away the statue.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/statue-pioneer-linked-california-gold-rush-removed-71267009
       --- Quote ---
       > Severaldozen people cheered as a work crew lifted the statue
       of John Sutter — a19th century European colonizer of California
       who enslaved Native Americans — off its pedestal outside Sutter
       Medical Center in the latestreckoning of historical figures
       being removed from public display.
       > ...
       > AshwutRodriguez, a California Indian from Sacramento, spit on
       the statue of Sutter after it was loaded onto a flatbed and tied
       down.
       >
       > “This isonly a Band Aid on a broken arm, but we can’t
       celebrate or consider anything until you stop celebrating these
       evil people,” said Rodriguez, 42, who came out with his family
       and young children to watch.
       --- End Quote ---
       www.yahoo.com/news/christopher-columbus-statue-removed-st-152227289.html
       --- Quote ---
       > Astatue of Christopher Columbus that stood in a St. Louis park
       for more than 130 years has been removed amid a growing national
       outcry against monuments to the 15th century explorer (June 16)
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/pelosi-orders-removal-four-portraits-confederate-house-speakers-capitol-n1231436
       --- Quote ---
       > Pelosi requested the immediate removal of the portraits of
       Robert Hunter of Virginia who served as House speaker from 1839
       to 1841; Howell Cobbs of Georgia (1849 to 1851); James Orr of
       South Carolina (1857 to 1859); and Charles Crisp of Georgia
       (1891 to 1895).
       >
       > "We cannot honor men such as James Orr, who swore on the House
       Floor to 'preserve and perpetuate' slavery in order to 'enjoy
       our property in peace, quiet and security,' or Robert Hunter,
       who served at nearly every level of the Confederacy, including
       in the Confederate Provincial Congress, as Confederate Secretary
       of State, in the Confederate Senate and in the Confederate
       Army,” Pelosi wrote in the letter. "The portraits of these men
       are symbols that set back our nation's work to confront and
       combat bigotry."
       > ...
       > The speaker said during her weekly press conference Thursday
       that she and her team were unaware that the portraits existed
       inside the Capitol until "we were taking inventory of the
       statues and the curator told us" about the four paintings of the
       Confederate speakers.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       www.yahoo.com/news/north-carolina-protesters-tear-down-025419841.html
       --- Quote ---
       > Protesters in North Carolina's capital pulled down parts of a
       Confederate monumentFriday on night and hanged one of the
       toppled statues from a light post.
       --- End Quote ---
       Today, Western statues. Tomorrow, Western civilization.
       ---
       www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/20/protesters-statue-washington-dc-albert-pike-juneteenth-us
       --- Quote ---
       > Cheering demonstrators jumped up and down as the 11-foot
       (3.4-meter) statue of Albert Pike – wrapped with chains –
       wobbled on its high granite pedestalbefore falling backward,
       landing in a pile of dust. Protesters then seta bonfire and
       stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, chanting, “No
       justice, no peace, no racist police”.
       > ...
       > The Pike statue has been a source of controversy over the
       years. The former Confederate general was also a longtime
       influential leader of the Freemasons, who revere Pike and who
       paid for the statue. Pike’s body is interred at the DC
       headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which also
       contains a small museum in his honor.
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Our enemies report:
       voiceofeurope.com/2020/06/foreigners-start-petitions-to-remove-racist-scandinavian-statues/
       --- Quote ---
       > Theiconoclasm in US and UK has now spread to Scandinavia,
       where petitions in Sweden and Norway have called for statues of
       “racist” historical persons to be taken down.
       > ...
       > Jallow, a foreigner, disapproves of Sweden’s commemoration of
       Von Linne because he was the first scientist who divided mankind
       into races. There are statues of him in various cities
       throughout Sweden. Recently, far-left activists have launched a
       petition to have one of Von Linne’s statues removed. At present,
       the petition has 1,566 signatures.
       >
       > Meanwhile, in Norway, a Moroccan woman living named Yasmin
       Zannachi has started the petition to take downtwo statues in
       Oslo – one of Winston Churchill, and the other of the Norwegian
       writer Ludvig Holberg, Document Norway reports.
       > ...
       > Zannachi’s petition, which now has over 4,000 signatures, is
       supported by the youth organization of the Norwegian Greens.
       >
       > TeodorBruu, spokesperson for the Norwegian Green Youth says:
       “We think it is totally obvious that we should not have statues
       of racists and slave traders in our towns.”
       --- End Quote ---
       ---
       Enemy tweet: coming for, like, ulysses s grant's ass? not sure
       about that one.
       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_policy_of_the_Ulysses_S._Grant_administration#Buffalo_destruction
       --- Quote ---
       > Centralto the Grant administration Peace policy was allowing
       the destruction of the buffalo, the Native food supply, to keep
       Native peoples dependenton government supplies. In 1872, around
       two thousand white buffalo hunters working between Kansas, and
       Arkansas were killing buffalo for their hides by the many
       thousands. The demand was for boots for Europeanarmies, or
       machine belts attached to steam engines. Acres of land were
       dedicated solely for drying the hides of the slaughtered
       buffalo.
       --- End Quote ---
       And the double-standard to top it off:
       --- Quote ---
       > Ranchers wanted the buffalo gone to open pasture land for
       their cattle herds.
       --- End Quote ---
       It is true that Grant was opposed to discrimination against
       "blacks":
       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant#Reconstruction_and_civil_rights
       --- Quote ---
       > Grantwas considered an effective civil rights president,
       concerned about theplight of African Americans.[312] On March
       18, 1869, Grant signed into law equal rights for blacks, to
       serve on juries and hold office, in Washington D.C., and in 1870
       he signed into law the Naturalization Act that gave foreign
       blacks citizenship.[312] During his first term, Reconstruction
       took precedence. Republicans controlled most Southern states,
       propped up by Republican controlled Congress, northern money,
       and southern military occupation.[313] Grant advocated the
       ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment that said states could
       not disenfranchise African Americans.[315]
       --- End Quote ---
       but this is only further evidence that (contrary to rightist
       accusations ofBLM ethnotribalism) BLM cares not just about
       oppression of "blacks"
       ---
       Here is a start for the US. This only has Confederate monuments,
       but this dataset can be downloaded expanded upon to include
       Columbus statues, pioneer settler monuments, etc.
       www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy#findings
       This page has the data in a simplified format:
       --- Quote ---
       > Across the United States, there are an estimated 1,741 public
       symbols of the Confederacy, according to the Southern Poverty
       Law Center.
       >
       > These symbols include schools, parks, bridges, roads, statues
       and more.
       > ...
       > In2017, during a protest against the removal of a statue of
       Confederate general Robert E Lee, a self-described neo-Nazi
       killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer after he rammed his car into a
       crowd of counter-protestersin Charlottesville, Virginia.
       >
       > Since then, at least 44 monuments have been removed across the
       country.
       >
       > The map below shows where the 771 statues and monuments are in
       the US:
       --- End Quote ---
       www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2020/06/mapping-hundreds-confederate-statues-200610103154036.html
       ---
       We have arrived in France:
       www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/06/22/protesters-deface-french-colonial-era-statues-in-red-paint/
       --- Quote ---
       > PARIS(AP) — Two Paris statues related to France’s colonial era
       were daubed with red paint Monday amid a global movement to take
       down monuments to figures tied to slavery or colonialism.
       >
       > One statue was of Hubert Lyautey, near the gold-domed
       Invalides monument that houses Napoleon’s tomb. Lyautey served
       in Morocco, Algeria, Madagascar and Indochina when they were
       under French control, and later was France’s minister of war
       during World War I.
       >
       > The other figure drenched in red shows Voltaire, a leading
       thinker and writer of the French Enlightenment, who owed part of
       his fortune to colonial-era trade.
       --- End Quote ---
       No topplings yet, though.....
       ---
       Well spotted!
       www.yahoo.com/news/petition-to-change-badge-st-michael-st-george-queen-honour-104906375.html
       --- Quote ---
       > A petition is calling for one of the Queen’s highest honours
       to be redesigned as campaigners say it resembles a white man
       killing a black man.
       > ...
       > On the petition, Tracy Reeve wrote: “The image on the Honorary
       Knights/Dames Commander (KCMG/DCMG) star is a white skinned
       angel stood on the head/neck of a black skinned devil.
       >
       > “This is ahighly offensive image, it is also reminiscent of
       the recent murder of George Floyd by the white policeman in the
       same manner presented here inthis medal.
       >
       > “We the undersigned are calling for this medal to completely
       redesigned in a more appropriate way and for an official apology
       to be given for the offence it has given!”
       > ...
       > Sir Simon Woolley, the director and one of the founders of
       Operation Black Vote, told The Guardian: “The original image may
       have been of St Michael slaying Satan, but the figure has no
       horns or tail and is clearly a black man. It is a shocking
       depiction, and it is even more shocking thatthat image could be
       presented to ambassadors representing this country abroad.
       >
       > “For most black and brown people, there is nothing good about
       the empire. Most people will see this as an image of George
       Floyd on a global scale and a symbol of white supremacy.”
       --- End Quote ---
       Judge for yourself:
       [img]
  HTML https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/uAQSE6x4E1O7Btpbjjqk0g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM4NC4yNzU0ODQ0MTQ0OTAzNA--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/hyeBHWTYTjBMxEJVnqT53g--~B/aD02NDc7dz0xMTg3O3NtPTE7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://media-mbst-pub-ue1.s3.amazonaws.com/creatr-uploaded-images/2020-06/1fa5a5c0-b542-11ea-9bef-f28846f83cb4[/img]
       ---
       www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/23/andrew-cuomo-defends-destruction-us-monuments-its-/
       New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attacks on monuments
       “healthy expression” and “good statements.”
       --- Quote ---
       > In an appearance Tuesday on NBC, he denied President Trump’s
       admonition that, in the words of interviewer Savannah Guthrie,
       “cities should do more to protect monuments.”
       > ...
       > “People are making a statement about equality, about
       community, to be against racism, against slavery, Ithink those
       are good statements,” the Democratic governor said.
       > ...
       > “It’sa healthy expression of people saying let’s get some
       priorities here and let’s remember the sin and mistake that this
       nation made and let’s not celebrate it,” he said.
       --- End Quote ---
       [img]
  HTML https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ueqrD1GgopO-i4JkhlLOuDB4_GPRhwqWTnMDsPRT_LlRjajzC4W3MHeVbFFU6Qwj_XDSmcOabRf4D3QmY0lAm5SxrOitzLztZSF2NbAxOmDDMhHWPoSAJErGs_MT1rNgm8izK_DLZj8VHQgYJfVtEJPRt1yXOLc[/img]
       #Post#: 8--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: June 30, 2020, 2:22 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Not all statues involve people:
  HTML https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/man-arrested-for-taking-down-kalispell-monument-with-chain-pickup-truck
       --- Quote ---
       > MISSOULA, Mont. — A Columbia Falls man is behind bars after
       police say he took down the Ten Commandments monument in
       Kalispell with a chain and a pickup truck.
       --- End Quote ---
       #Post#: 36--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: July 2, 2020, 1:47 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://nypost.com/2020/07/01/christopher-columbus-statue-removed-outside-columbus-city-hall/
  HTML https://apnews.com/b27b2bfce3ecefe13c917a69a59cd9da
       --- Quote ---
       > Stonewall Jackson removed from Richmond’s Monument Avenue
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/belgium-king-leopold-statue-removed-115117221.html
       --- Quote ---
       > A statue of former Belgian king Leopold II has been removed in
       the city of Ghent as Belgium marked the 60th anniversary of the
       end of its colonial rule in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
       --- End Quote ---
       We still have a very long way to go, however:
  HTML https://us.yahoo.com/news/worshipping-whiteness-why-racist-symbols-080048241.html
       #Post#: 52--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: guest5
       Date: July 2, 2020, 10:15 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Was Mahatma Gandhi racist? | The Stream
       --- Quote ---
       > The University of Ghana has removed a statue of the Indian
       independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, citing complaints from
       faculty and students that he was racist toward black Africans.
       The statue was donated to the university in 2016 by the Indian
       government, prompting critics to create the hashtag
       #GandhiMustFall to draw attention to derogatory statements the
       young Gandhi had written while living in South Africa.
       >
       > Gandhi is considered an icon of social justice and defenders
       of his legacy contend that his writings, while ignorant, should
       be considered within the greater context of his life and
       struggle against oppression. Organisers of the hashtag campaign
       argue that Gandhi’s legacy doesn’t justify racism or his view
       that Africans were “inferior”.
       >
       > In this episode, we speak with Gandhi historians and
       #GandhiMustFall campaigners to explore the impact of Mahatma
       Gandhi’s reported racism on his legacy as a champion of civil
       rights. Join the conversation.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWFQtAejmfM
       Mahatma Gandhi's Statue Vandalised In London Amid Black Lives
       Matter Protest
       --- Quote ---
       > Days after the desecration of a Mahatma Gandhi statue US
       capital Washington DC during George Floyd protests, protestors
       in Parliament Square, London, targeted a Gandhi statue on the
       other side of the Atlantic, spraying 'racist' on its foundation
       and splattering it with white paint. During the George Floyd
       protests in Parliament Square, which has emerged as one of the
       major hubs of protests in London, some miscreants took to
       defiling the statues located along the main square.
       >
       > The main square holds statues of some historically respected
       figures of political movement including Abraham Lincoln and
       Winston Churchill. Most of the statues along the main square
       were defiled with words such as 'racist' spray-painted on them,
       while some saw placards of the Black Lives Matter movement being
       hung around their necks.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxhb-JOHV8Q
       
       #Post#: 85--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: July 3, 2020, 11:59 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1278795602583789573
       --- Quote ---
       > Following yesterday's order by Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to
       remove all Confederate Statues immediately, a second figure was
       removed.
       >
       > The statue of Matthew Maury, a Confederate Naval officer, was
       removed this morning.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://www.marketwatch.com/story/after-confederate-statues-controversy-native-american-lawmakers-ask-what-about-jackson-2020-07-02
       --- Quote ---
       > “There’s no question Andrew Jackson was the worst president
       ever for Native Americans — cruel, horrible,” said Rep. Deb
       Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat. Haaland is one of only four
       Native Americans and one of two Native women in Congress.
       >
       > Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico, said
       Jackson’s statue doesn’t deserve its place in the Rotunda.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4OVEEuXA0c
       Also the following is a worthwhile perspective:
  HTML https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monuments-racism.html
       --- Quote ---
       > You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate
       Monument
       >
       > The black people I come from were owned and raped by the white
       people I come from. Who dares to tell me to celebrate them?
       > ...
       > I am a black, Southern woman, and of my immediate white male
       ancestors, all of them were rapists. My very existence is a
       relic of slavery and Jim Crow.
       >
       > According to the rule of hypodescent (the social and legal
       practice of assigning a genetically mixed-race person to the
       race with less social power) I am the daughter of two black
       people, the granddaughter of four black people, the
       great-granddaughter of eight black people. Go back one more
       generation and it gets less straightforward, and more sinister.
       As far as family history has always told, and as modern DNA
       testing has allowed me to confirm, I am the descendant of black
       women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their
       help.
       >
       > It is an extraordinary truth of my life that I am biologically
       more than half white, and yet I have no white people in my
       genealogy in living memory. No. Voluntary. Whiteness. I am more
       than half white, and none of it was consensual. White Southern
       men — my ancestors — took what they wanted from women they did
       not love, over whom they had extraordinary power, and then
       failed to claim their children.
       >
       > What is a monument but a standing memory? An artifact to make
       tangible the truth of the past. My body and blood are a tangible
       truth of the South and its past. The black people I come from
       were owned by the white people I come from. The white people I
       come from fought and died for their Lost Cause. And I ask you
       now, who dares to tell me to celebrate them? Who dares to ask me
       to accept their mounted pedestals?
       > ...
       > Either you have been blind to a truth that my body’s story
       forces you to see, or you really do mean to honor the oppressors
       at the expense of the oppressed, and you must at last
       acknowledge your emotional investment in a legacy of hate.
       >
       > Either way, I say the monuments of stone and metal, the
       monuments of cloth and wood, all the man-made monuments, must
       come down. I defy any sentimental Southerner to defend our
       ancestors to me. I am quite literally made of the reasons to
       strip them of their laurels.
       --- End Quote ---
       I of course recommend the author to voluntarily refrain from
       reproducing so as to terminate the bloodline she carries ASAP.
       Though more importantly the state needs to step in and prohibit
       actual racists from reproducing.
       We need to start promoting what I am hereby coining genetic
       cancel culture. The physical cancel culture currently being
       practiced, consisting of eliminating colonialist symbols, is
       well-intentioned but ultimately superficial, and dangerous if we
       presume it is sufficient. Eliminating the bloodlines celebrated
       by those symbols is the only true solution.
       #Post#: 107--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Statue decolonization
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: July 4, 2020, 11:40 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://uk.news.yahoo.com/protesters-pull-down-columbus-statue-024421492.html
       --- Quote ---
       > Baltimore protesters pulled down a statue of Christopher
       Columbus and threw it into the city's Inner Harbor on Saturday
       night.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://twitter.com/louiskraussnews/status/1279579607637917699
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