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There has been long campaign to try and get Cecil Rhodes statue removed from Oxford University, however a decision has been to keep it and there has been a huge backlash among academics and students. This follows students yesterday students voting to remove a portrait of the queen.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57422751About 150 Oxford University academics are refusing to teach at one of its colleges after it decided to keep its controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes.
For years campaigners have been calling for the statue at Oriel College to go, saying Rhodes stood for white supremacy and racism.
But last month the college decided not to take it down for practical reasons.
Now, some academics are boycotting Oriel and have signed a petition saying the statue "glorifies colonialism".
They are refusing to give tutorials to undergraduates from Oriel or attend talks there, as first reported by the Daily Telegraph.
The college declined to comment on the matter when contacted by the BBC.
A No 10 spokesman said the government would expect "appropriate action" to be taken if the teaching of students was disrupted by the dispute, such as providing compensation.
Rhodes was a businessman and politician who played a big role in southern Africa in the 19th Century.
He thought of the English as a master race, and his critics see him as the ultimate representation of colonialism and one of the people who helped pave the way for apartheid.
He had been a student at Oriel, and his statue is now above a doorway of a building named after him.
Oriel's governing body said last year that the majority of its members wished the statue to be removed.
But after an inquiry, the college decided not to remove it due to the cost and complex planning processes.
The Oxford lecturers say the college's decision not to remove the statue "undermines us all", and that the whole university can only work to eradicate racism if all its colleges do so.
Its weird this because I'm from an immigrant background with my parents both Irish and no doubt some of these controversial figures like Rhodes, Churchill, Cromwell etc weren't great for Ireland (Cromwell certainly wasn't) but I've never had this urge to see statues taken down or felt 'offended' by them. Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire has a big statue of Cromwell (since it was his hometown), but I recognise he had a significant role in shaping British history. Obviously I want people to be aware of his legacy in Ireland but after that I don't care.
Tbh pretty much nearly all important and historic figures before 1950 held racist and sexist views that wouldn't be acceptable today, even the so called "good" people back then.
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