Messages on noticeboards
As much as I would love for people to be all about facts statistics and evidence, we know this isn’t true.
The example of Confederate memorials being taken down is such a great comparison to the Tube noticeboard remarks. For a start, both are factual. They are to remember the deeds done by soldiers of the past back in their homeland. For the Confederates, these statues are often in the state capitals and other city centres, and for those at Rorke’s Drift, a noticeboard at a busy London Underground station.
The problem comes with perception. In the intervening years in both, large African-American, Afro-Caribbean and more recently East African communities have formed around where these ‘memorials’ have been placed and their perception of them is different to those who put them up.
Those in the previously Confederate states may see them as a form of celebrating the ‘old ways’ of slavery and racism — forms of white supremacy and in Dollis Hill some may see it as an example of colonialist misadventure during centuries of white Europeans ravaging the African continent, where many a Londoner’s ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and family and taken somewhere else. Perhaps one could say that is a form of white supremacy too?
It is not the ‘facts’ themselves that are offensive, it is that those facts imply a particular frame of reference, a form of celebration which is being shown and remind them of a particular period in history. This is being displayed to people as they go about their lives and they might not want to see that. Many don’t care, many shrug and move on, some may say something or take a photo, perhaps to complain through the internet, a tiny few may act on it and that is what happened in Dollis Hill. These days the station noticeboards are often for funny thoughts for the day and silly quotes, it seems that for a few this was a bit heavy.
As someone who grew up in London and as a descendant of those forcibly removed, I also studied the US Civil War and taught a fair bit of colonial history in a school a 20 minute walk from Dollis Hill Station, I feel I can straddle a bit of the divide here and would happily discuss this with anyone. We should not hide from any history. Facts should always be available for anyone to seek them out.
My concern is that (thankfully) few people understand what it’s like to see something on display and feel a visceral reaction to it, whether that be a Confederate statue or a reference to Britain’s colonial past. British colonial or Irish national monuments in Dublin and Belfast would be good nearby examples. Or perhaps, to dredge up some fairly useless, but local facts for Scotland where I’m living right now, if there was a noticeboard up in Glasgow Central station next month saying:
“This month in 1304, English cavalry led by Sir John Segrave and Robert the Bruce received great praise and distinction for destroying much of the Scottish leadership during the First War of Scottish Independence near Peebles.”
It is not the complete story, but it is all true. But I’m sure we can all agree it might receive at least one comment asking it to be taken down and even if that is a tiny minority, modern, public-facing damage control will seek to “apologise for any offence caused”.
