THE HARDER THEY FALL
Deconstructing White Supremacy, One Statue at a Time
Across the globe, statues and monuments dedicated to controversial historical figures with legacies of racism such as Edward Colston, Jefferson Davis, and Christopher Columbus have been torn down during Black Lives Matter protests. Whilst most conservative uproar explains that removing such statues “erases valuable history”, many others feel that the destruction of these monuments is long overdue.
Current events are not the first time that citizens have removed statues of historical figures that symbolize oppression. In 2015, the "Rhodes Must Fall" campaign began after activist Chumani Maxwele smeared feces on the statue of Cecil Rhodes, a 19th-century British imperialist, as a protest against Rhodes' racism and its legacy at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The protesters said that the statue had "great symbolic power" which glorified someone "who exploited black labor and stole land from indigenous people". Even further, the protestors explained that Rhodes was more than just a symbol of past oppression but that he also represented institutional racism in South Africa that still remains within the university and the country at large.
During the Rhodes protests in South Africa, and in response to recent events, the opposing response to the removal of statues of oppressive figures is that destroying these statues erases our history. This, however, is not the case. Erasing these statues does not erase our history. We can still remember our history, study it, and learn from it without glamorizing evil. The removal of these statues does not call into question whether or not slave traders, confederates, and colonizers should be remembered within our history - it is about whether they deserve to be honored and glorified with statues, memorabilia, and buildings and holidays named after them.
The problem is that these statues are not just representations of historical events, but rather, they illustrate what the current government deems to be worth celebrating or respecting. In the article Removing Racist Symbols Isn’t a Denial of History, Christopher Phelps writes:
“History is one thing, memorials another. As tributes, memorials are selective, affirmative representations. When a university names a building after someone or erects a statue to that person, it bestows honor and legitimacy. The imprimatur of an institution of higher education affords the subject respect, dignity, and authority. This makes memorials every bit as much about values, status quo, and future as about remembrance.”
Therefore, if a picture says a thousand words, what message is sent by erecting public monuments of known slave traders that descendants of slaves must walk past every day?
In response to those defending the statues, is this truly the history that should be celebrated? Instead of clinging to these statues in a vain attempt to hold onto a false perception of history, understand that defending these statues is praising the men who murdered, tortured, and enslaved black and indigenous people of color (BIPOC). Defending slave-traders and colonizers in the name of history glorifies the achievements that these men made on the backs of those that they oppressed.
For many, especially BIPOC, the glorification of racist historical figures has gone on for far too long. These statues are constant reminders to citizens of the pain and suffering that their ancestors had to endure at the hands of white men. Such monuments send the message that preserving white supremacist ideology and pride is more important than respecting the BIPOC citizens and their ancestors enough to remove glamorizations of their past oppressors.
Thus, as we ponder the meaning behind these statues and begin the process of tearing them down, we’re all left with the same burning question: what comes next?
What does a world without the glorification of past oppressors look like? Which new historical figures, if any, will be honored in their place?
The reality of the matter is that removing public reminders of the world’s racist past is only the first step (a small, yet symbolic one) in addressing the fundamental problem of systemic racism within our society. It will take much more destroying statues and erecting new monuments to dismantle hundreds of years of white supremacy.
Beyond the statues, racism and white supremacy are embedded in the fabric of our society. It is essential to recognize that the very system that marveled proudly at statues of colonizers is the same system that relegates POC neighborhoods to environmentally dangerous areas and invests more money into law enforcement in poor communities than the education system. In some ways, these indicators of the racist present are much more obvious than the statues that commemorate the past.
Whilst removing these statues is a great start towards righting the wrongs committed against communities of color for centuries, the battle against white supremacy and the mission to create a more accurate representation of history are both far from over. There are still textbooks to be re-written, prejudiced systems to evolve, and years upon years worth of glorifying and celebrating racist figures to unlearn.
But for now, I relish in this small victory.
This piece was originally written by Lauren Ritchie for Brown Girl Green.