De Beers disown founder

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

De Beers Backs Calls to Take Down Founder’s Statue in UK

Hundreds of protestors are demanding Oxford’s Oriel College remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes.

www.nationaljeweler.com

 

[Johnbt]

"“Cecil Rhodes was one of our founders in 1888. We reject what he stood for, and while we can’t rewrite that history, we can bear the responsibility of history to build a better legacy.” "

I wonder, will the school refund the money he invested in it and return it to his descendants? The rejection should be total, don't you think?

 

[JPie]

I wonder, will the school refund the money he invested in it and return it to his descendants? The rejection should be total, don't you think?

Or think of it as reparations.

 

[Johnbt]

Reparations? I suppose, but I think it's a stretch. The University of Oxford’s Oriel College is in the UK. How does that help anyone he harmed in Africa?

 

[bludiva]

how about if they rethink the rhodes scholarship so that instead of furthering students who are already on a fast track to success it does something to help provide more equitable access to education? .....not holding my breath....

 

[JPie]

Reparations? I suppose, but I think it's a stretch. The University of Oxford’s Oriel College is in the UK. How does that help anyone he harmed in Africa?

If you really want to know how a university in the UK can help people in Africa as atonement for the wrongs of colonialism, do the work. I’m sure you’re dedicated to being an anti-racist, after all.

 

[Johnbt]

"If you really want to know how a university in the UK can help people in Africa as atonement for the wrongs of colonialism, do the work."

You have misunderstood or miscontrued my comment. I questioned how the school keeping the money he invested in UK school all those years ago could be considered a reparation to people living in Africa today.

I'm mostly dedicated to the truth. I'm too old at this point to care much about what category strangers put me in. Actions speak louder than words, etc.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

"“Cecil Rhodes was one of our founders in 1888. We reject what he stood for, and while we can’t rewrite that history, we can bear the responsibility of history to build a better legacy.” "

I wonder, will the school refund the money he invested in it and return it to his descendants? The rejection should be total, don't you think?

He never had children. He was gay. Many successful people thru history were. Alexander the Great for example. But I do not think that is relevant.
Given he has funded many anti war related issues I think personally this is a bitter sweet issue. I can not decide which way I sit.

 

[AV_]

I can honor what others did with his bequests - the good ones [easy to take] & the bad ones [hard], & what to hoist on walls & pedestals out of history [funny habit.]

 

[Johnbt]

"Given he has funded many anti war related issues I think personally this is a bitter sweet issue. I can not decide which way I sit. "

Mark Twain wrote of him in 1897. The last sentence is one of the best insults of all time.

"He raids and robs and slays and enslaves the Matabele and gets worlds of Charter-Christian applause for it. He has beguiled England into buying Charter waste paper for Bank of England notes, ton for ton, and the ravished still burn incense to him as the Eventual God of Plenty. He has done everything he could think of to pull himself down to the ground; he has done more than enough to pull sixteen common-run great men down; yet there he stands, to this day, upon his dizzy summit under the dome of the sky, an apparent permanency, the marvel of the time, the mystery of the age, an Archangel with wings to half the world, Satan with a tail to the other half.

I admire him, I frankly confess it; and when his time comes I shall buy a piece of the rope for a keepsake."

- Following the Equator

 

[Vogue]

He was also quoted as saying that the black peoples of Africa deserved to have their land stolen from them because it would make them work harder, and since their lot in life was to work for the white man (which he considered the master race), they might as well get used to it. He was a white supremacist through and through, and he was proud of it. If he's to be memorialized, I say do it through the history books with an honest accounting of his deeds, rather than a statue that honors him and ignores his legacy of human misery.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

A friend sent me this from the start of the Anti Rhodes movement.

I wonder if anyone knows if Oxford have changed their opinion. (I did see something more strident than these comments but I think it was from an AltRight movement)

"Chris Patten, the chancellor of Oxford University, has told students involved in the campaign to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes that they must be prepared to embrace freedom of thought or “think about being educated elsewhere”.

Cecil Rhodes statue row: Chris Patten tells students to embrace freedom of thought

Oxford University chancellor tells students Nelson Mandela endorsed the Rhodes scholarships

www.theguardian.com