Slave Trader Statue’s Historic Fall Launches A Plethora Of Memes
Image via Joyce Nelson / Shutterstock.com
Anti-racism protests in Bristol saw a historic event where the bronze statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled over and tossed into the harbor.
Several video clips on social media showed activists pulling the statue down and rolling it through the city before ditching it into the water. At one point, a protester was seen kneeling on the monument for around nine minutes in the same way George Floyd was treated before he passed on under the custody of Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.
Colston was a board member as well as the deputy governor of the Royal African Company, which ran the transportation of around 84,000 Africans into slavery in the UK.
Around 19,000 passengers died in the company’s slave ships during the Middle Passage, and their bodies were thrown overboard to be eaten by sharks.
In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, Colston’s statue was plunged into the harbor as a demonstration against racism. At the age of social media, internet users turned the significant moment into fodder for memes.
One person edited a video of the statue underwater with a voiceover calling out for help, while another user posted a clip mocking the statue among the fishes in the river.
Check out more memes below.
Historic scenes in Bristol as protesters kneel on the neck of the toppled statue of Edward Colston for eight minutes. #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/MrNCoKiEd1
— Martin Booth (@beardedjourno) June 7, 2020
@rhianna_jay bristol really ran up on edward colston ##fyp ##blm ##theukisnotinnocent ##bristol ##blacklivesmatter ##blacklivesmatterUK ##colston
♬ Rain - Aitch & AJ Tracey
@eleanornmay Edward Colston statue be like: 👁👄👁 ##fyp ##bristol ##blacklivesmatter ##acab
♬ original sound - verqe
Watch out watch out watch out #Colston pic.twitter.com/pY6QJ9y59W
— DL🏴 (@D_Lebeau97) June 7, 2020
Just a quick screenshot about the Edward Colston statue for posterity, before Wikipedia edits ... pic.twitter.com/ZWCcM5EKge
— Stephen McKay (@SocialPolicy) June 7, 2020
@silas.gc0 I feel bad for the fish that now have to look at Edward colstons statue ##colston ##colstonstatue
♬ original sound - joefloww_
fancam of the statue of the slave driver in bristol drowning ✨ pic.twitter.com/WaZ1He05MP
— ً (@lifehardfr) June 7, 2020
[via Dazed, cover image via Joyce Nelson / Shutterstock.com]
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