The murder of African-American George Floyd in the United States is turning into a large-scale campaign aimed at eliminating uncomfortable historical facts that overshadow Western democracies.
This is stated in the material of the Reuters agency.
In the USA, people demand to get rid of everything that reminds of the Confederation. Its leaders and symbolism are associated with racism, slavery and xenophobia. Against the backdrop of indignation, the voice of the inhabitants of the southern states, whose heritage and culture they are trying to erase, is practically inaudible.
In Britain, Winston Churchill was made a racist. So the vandals wrote on the monument to one of the most famous politicians of the XX century. Moreover, the killer and racist branded Queen Victoria, having painted a monument to her in the city of Leeds. Such actions were sharply condemned by the current head of the British government, Boris Johnson. He called on fellow citizens to abandon “attempts to rewrite and censor” their own past. However, in London they are already thinking about renaming a number of streets named after the now objectionable figures.
In the north-eastern French city of Lille, the death of George Floyd resulted in the demolition of the monument to General Louis Leon César Federb, who participated in the colonization of Algeria and was the governor of Senegal.
Cambridge University historian Mary Ononokpono calls on Britain, Europe, the US and Africa to “confront their history.”
“We urgently need to have a long and honest discussion about the history of slavery and its legacy of impoverishment,” she says.
Thus, the Western world begins a large-scale campaign of rewriting its own history. Many of its pages seriously overshadow the current appearance of countries committed to liberal values, so even individuals who until recently were considered the founders of Western empires become enemies.