Summary
In June 2020 the statue of slaver trader Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into the harbour in Bristol – one of the most visible moments of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK. The statue now lies on its side in a museum, a testament to the dramatic re-evaluation of Bristol’s painful history at the centre of the transatlantic slave trade. Over the last year schools and buildings bearing Colston's name have been renamed. Colston has been cancelled. But what about the system of wealth, power and race that he represented? Bristol journalist Neil Maggs speaks to the people in Bristol dealing with Colston’s legacy. Current members of the Society of Merchant Venturers, a powerful charitable organisation which promoted Colston’s reputation as a philanthropist, have suddenly been thrust into the spotlight. School leaders are rolling out unconscious bias training. Elsewhere community leaders and politicians are navigating the potential for a backlash against terms such as white privilege as the national conversation on race continues.
Producer: Lucy Proctor Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Hello, this is Analysis. This one's set in Bristol, where presenter Neil Mags is from, |
| 0:41.0 | and it's a bit of an eavesdrop on conversations that have been happening |
| 0:44.2 | in the city after that infamous statue of Bristol has been at the heart of our |
| 0:59.0 | national conversation on race and class. |
| 1:09.0 | When the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled and rolled into the harbour, the world's media descended. |
| 1:11.0 | Brestolians were divided. |
| 1:14.0 | Many though celebrated and schools, streets, buildings and membership groups dropped the Colston name, |
| 1:20.0 | even disbanded. |
| 1:21.0 | In today's parlance, Colston has been cancelled. |
| 1:29.8 | Del Roy Hibbert is a friend of mine who was there for the statue coming down. |
| 1:34.5 | Dale was invited back a week later to an All Lives Matter protest after rumors that the |
| 1:39.2 | War Memorial 50 meters of the road was to be def-faced. A descendant of men who fought in World War II, |
| 1:46.0 | he joined football fans and bikers to take a stand, |
| 1:49.2 | while also protecting the Black Lives Matter placards around a plinth of the Colson statue. |
| 1:54.4 | We ain't racist. |
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