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How do we think about taking down controversial statues in the UK?
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The controversial statues are a distraction from the real issue at hand in the UK

Putting emphasis on statues in a debate about UK race relations detracts from the problem.

The Argument

The focus on controversial statues in the UK is a needless distraction for the issues of serious racial inequalities that pervade British society. When faced with the troubling facts, the statues are shown to be unimportant in comparison to the disturbing rates of inequality in the UK. In 2018, a report was published displaying that black people were at the receiving end of 12 percent of cases of violence and use of force against citizens, even though they only make up 3.3 percent of the population. [1] Beyond simply police brutality, recent Covid-19 numbers have also forced British citizens to come to terms with the inequality within their society. According to an IFS report, the death rate for people of African descent was 3·5 times higher than for white British citizens. [2] With all of these difficult truths forced upon the UK, it is easy to understand why the British government is hyper focused on the statue controversy in order to distract citizens from the real issues at hand.

Counter arguments

Many British protesters believe that bringing attention to these statues is not a distraction from the real issues, it is bringing attention to those issues. They believe that coming to terms with the injustices that famous figures in British history have committed will bring attention to the oppression that has been embedded in the system for years. [3] For them, the statues are the trademarks of inequality.

Proponents

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/black-lives-matter-uk-protests-about-people-not-statues-1-6695567
  2. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30228-9/fulltext
  3. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/11/toppling-statues-bygone-tyrants-forces-british-people-face-present-day-racism
This page was last edited on Tuesday, 22 Sep 2020 at 09:16 UTC

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