That Oxford university still has a statue of Cecil Rhodes, the English imperialist and robber baron, explains perfectly why it's a sinkhole of privilege and inequality
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| The Rhodes Colossus my arse more a racist murderer and thief: (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I agree with most of the article below by Kenan Malik, but when he writes; "There is something preposterous in describing a campaign to take down Rhodes’ statue as an act of ‘decolonization’, or to present it as a transformative act," I fear he misses the point.
The fact is decolonisation has not taken place in many English people minds, especially the upper middle class neo liberals who currently govern the UK.
For them the anti imperialist struggles were a mere blip of history, and not a good one at that. They look back on the British Empire as England's finest hour, and regard Rhodes as a great hero.
The fact they have been so keen over the last three decades to make war on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria is a hangover from the Empire years.
For these people there has been no transformative act. If there had been Oxford university, that bastion of ruling class power and privilege would have long ago removed the Statue of an imperialist, racist, robber baron like Cecil Rhodes.
The Kenan Malik article can be read here.
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