An anti-racism charity has said that plaques on statues of slave owners do not go far enough.
Steve West, from Stand Up to Racism, said that statues of slave traders in Scotland should be taken down.
Speaking after a protest in Edinburgh at St Andrew Square, Mr West said that while plaques on statues explaining their role in the slave trade were a step in the right direction, they should be taken down completely.
READ MORE: Glasgow statues on "topple the racists" hit list
Mr West said: “It is positive that the plaque will be put there, but it doesn’t go far enough. Statues are there to commemorate so-called great people.
“So the fact there is a statue there gives a message that he was some sort of great person, so I think it would be far better if the statue was taken down.”
Edinburgh City Council is in talks to place a plaque on the statue of Henry Dundas, who towers above St Andrew Square.
Dundas’s life has come under fire during the Black Lives Matter movement, due to obstructing the abolition of slavery, leading to thousands more black people being taken into slavery.
Mr West said more needed to be done to educate Scotland’s young people about its history with the slave trade.
READ MORE: Every Scottish street linked to slave-trade revealed
He said: “It is important that when people think about the Industrial Revolution and the great things that were invented as part of that, they realise where a lot of the funds came from. It is very important that people realise the history of the slave trade.”
Over the last week, renewed calls have been made to take down all the statues of slave traders that commemorate Scotland’s imperial past.
Mr West paid tribute to George Floyd, a black man in America who was killed by police officers, saying: “The brutal murder of George Floyd has set off a series of events and more and more people are taking this as an opportunity to say racism has got to be brought to an end.
READ MORE: 'Without slavery Glasgow wouldn't exist': The brutal truth about Scotland's slaving past
“If there’s anything positive from it, this is it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel