Racist - The Bear and Badger

davyK

Can't say I do. Not a patch on what used to pass for entertainment on TV though when we were kids.

b0r1s

Mind your own fucking business. Genius

https://twitter.com/fortheculture13/status/1270891248480550913?s=21

From a tweet about and Asian jogger abused in a Californian park by an angry old woman.

MattyJ

I see the toppling of Colston in Bristol has sparked a nationwide conversation/action about the statues we have up and how appropriate they are. You may not agree that tearing it down was the right action, but it has had the desired effect that years of petitioning, conversation and voting has not.

Dinostar77

MattyJ wrote:

I see the toppling of Colston in Bristol has sparked a nationwide conversation/action about the statues we have up and how appropriate they are. You may not agree that tearing it down was the right action, but it has had the desired effect that years of petitioning, conversation and voting has not.

Thats a really good point mate. I hadn't considered that before.

LivDiv

The Baden-Powell statue is to be at least temporarily removed.

That one stings a bit. Not so much the statue because whatevs about statues but balancing the fact that his views were problematic while accepting that he did do a lot of good. The Scouts were a good thing in my life and would benefit a lot of young people today if they were to give it a go, unfortunately the movement has a stigma.

MattyJ

My kid goes to cubs (or did before covid) It's difficult... Because there isn't really anything else like it and he enjoys it a lot.

davyK

There was a lot of it about.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7080934.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6366251.stm

There's a collection of statues in the grounds of our City Hall here. No doubt they will be getting looked at.

There's an online book of condolence here for George Floyd - many of the comments on social media about that aren't at all heartening.

The whole statue conversation is important but we need to watch it doesn't become a cottage industry - it can be used to keep the racism issue live though.

davyK

MattyJ wrote:

My kid goes to cubs (or did before covid) It's difficult... Because there isn't really anything else like it and he enjoys it a lot.

Focus on the organisation as it is now. Many buildings and organisations will have a murky past.

Is there any reference to Baden-Powell in their routines and procedures? That could be a problem I suppose. Really don't know anything about it. My 2 girls were in organisations linked to our (well - Wifey's) church - there was a Scout troup and they were in that for a while - but they didn't like it and joined the Guides.

MattyJ

They have to learn when it started and who started it when they first join, that's about it. Don't think it's reference after that

LivDiv

Iirc that's all it was even back in the 90s. For the most part it was just having fun, playing games then a bit of skill building, community stuff now and again. It was good for confidence building as well.
There is some flag stuff and pledging to god and to the queen. I was never fussed by that stuff.

Diluted Dante

Yeah the list that they are on is not a target list for destruction. Its a list of statues/buildings/street names commemorating people involved in slavery, colonialism and racism.

The idea is to use the momentum of the moment to spark conversations locally about what to do with them. It seems like in Poole they will be having that conversation but it wasnt necessary to remove it whilst that happens.

LivDiv

I guess it's difficult because while the intent may be to use the list as a starting point for discussion (which I fully approve) the reality is that it could quite easily be used as a removal list by others.

I_R

The shift from looking at links with slavery to links with colonialism is going to throw in most of the public statues in the country. Looking at attitudes to race is going to have some unsurprising results as well.

davyK

Facing the truth about how our economy was built will be sobering.

Tempy

All I remember about Cubs and Scouts is getting bullied mercilessly for not fitting in.

JonB

I never trusted those little shits.

Tempy

The colonials? Me neither

LivDiv

Tempy wrote:

All I remember about Cubs and Scouts is getting bullied mercilessly for not fitting in.

No doubt it happens, that's down to bad leadership running the troop.

JonB

As for these statues, seems like we need a museum of colonialism and slavery to house them in and generally start a conversation about our history.

Diluted Dante

JonB wrote:

As for these statues, seems like we need a museum of colonialism and slavery to house them in and generally start a conversation about our history.

Its in Liverpool.

davyK

That would be a very good idea.

JonB

Tempy wrote:

The colonials? Me neither

Well yeah, them too. But the cubs and scouts. Little bob-a-jobbing pricks.

davyK

Diluted Dante wrote:

As for these statues, seems like we need a museum of colonialism and slavery to house them in and generally start a conversation about our history.

Its in Liverpool.

That's no surprise given it was a point of focus on the slave triangle - but maybe a stronger national view is required.

LivDiv

Probably needs a movie to be made about it in all honesty.
Which at first sounds dumb until you consider the impact movies like 12 Years a Slave or Schindler's List had.

JonB

Diluted Dante wrote:

JonB wrote:

As for these statues, seems like we need a museum of colonialism and slavery to house them in and generally start a conversation about our history.

Its in Liverpool.

Right well, pop him in there then.

(Seriously, I didn't know that. Presumably it's fairly new? I haven't lived there in years.)

Diluted Dante

I'm not sure how new it is, it was expanded out of the Maritime Museum, and became its own thing. Been around at least a decade though.

LivDiv

Trouble with museums is the visitor likely already has that interest.

mistercrayon

It’s a good way of ostensibly making it public while practically quarantining all the information from public discourse imo.

There’s the peoples history museum in Manchester which really highlights the struggle many people took to overthrow rich wankers but I only found out about it because i was in part organising a trade union conference (to elevate what it was greatly) and needed a location.

LivDiv

Yeah to be clear I'm not against museums, just that their place fits somewhere down the line. That initial spark needs to be delivered to people.

Diluted Dante

LivDiv wrote:

Trouble with museums is the visitor likely already has that interest.

Or is at school

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