Professional Communications

Introduction

The assessment here presents here a case where there an argumentative discussion is going on which is related with the movement called Black Live Matter (BLM) where George Floyd was given death by the police. This argument is about the thoughts of various people including some people in favour, some against and some are neutral in their arguments. The main topic of this argumentative article is about keeping the old aged colonial plaques, statues and symbolic monuments which symbolises that whites are superior to blacks and the argument is about what should be done with the past slavery owned statues and other constructions. Different types of advices and opinions are included regarding either keeping the constructions or removing them. Based on the three incidents regarding this matter, all the possible solutions to the issues, recommendations of any one best solution by rejecting the other two solutions is given and with the justifications of those recommendations are included below. All the argumentative statements that are presented in this article are regarding the issues of which few are in favour and few are against the removal of the constructions. One best solutions to cover both the aspects of keeping the past constructions & in such a way that they will not hurt the sentiments & solidarity of the Black Lives Matter movement are advised justifying that why it has been said as the best solution to the matter.

Possible solutions to the issue that can be adopted

The three different solutions were raised by the people of Britain universities including their staff members, professors and students too. As per Schulz (2019), this case article raises questions about the historic past-time slavery-stories and some of the worst crimes that were done in the ancient times. In this context, three possible arguments have been seen to arise with three different solutions out of which one is to fully demolish and remove the Rhodes duration ancient historic constructions because after his death till now the universities have to bow and pay homage to the Rhodes colonial symbolic rules that consists white supremacy in it and moreover the same social behaviour is still continued. As opined by Kearns (2020), in order to bring change and equal behaviour to all, members and professors from various universities strongly felt the need of full banishing of his colonial environment and supported the thought of full abolition.

The next opinion was suggested by some people is not to fully demolish the ancient Rhodes structures because these somehow they represents the past historic times and underpins that how the blacks have been treated as slaves in the ancient British society. As per Chigudu (2020), the supporters of no-full demolishing statement suggested that these constructions if hurting the sentiments of the black people about their past and will create a bad image ruining their present also with open display then these constructions can be turned as museum pieces. This decision will create a new rewriting of the Britain history by turning negativity into profitable chances for contributing to the society maintenance (tandfonline.com, 2020). So shifting the sculptures to museums will contextualise both the aspects through rigorous critics and dark histories which will never be forgotten.

The third opinion was not to touch the constructions and keep them as it is. People said these past historic constructions such as cemeteries, statues, artefacts, sculpture and many more things are those materials which tell us about our past historic times. These things inform us that how were our past living status and how our ancestors lead their life, what were our cultural and social values, how our ancestors have struggled in their lives to gain respect and place in society and fought till their death with the whites against all odds and tortures from the whites and other knowledgeable information about the ancient days (wiley.com, 2020). So they should not be neither removed nor shifted to museums. The people supporting the non-removal argument said that it will give the young black people the enthusiasm and power to continue the fight that their ancestors fought against blacks and earn equal respect and position in the society (Kwoba et al. 2018). It will make the youth learn that how they got the present position in the society and what sacrifices their ancestors have made.

All these three solutions are totally or partially different from each other in their perceptions showing different thoughts and ideas about removing, avoiding and forgetting the past uncomforting slavery, violence, struggle and fight for equal rights but not addressing them.

Reasons for not recommending the other two solutions

In this context, after analysing the scenario and thoughts and arguments of various people, it can be said that there three primary solutions that are presented in this case with three different measures that can be taken to safeguard the sentiments of the black people and protect their youth from having a negative effect on them from their past history.

Two solutions of the three that were suggested of fully removing the constructions and not demolishing the statues, plaques and monuments will not be the best possible solutions for resolving this issue. Since the removal doesn’t means to get rid of those because without those statues and plaques also, the history will be in its own place with the actual facts. So rather than just avoiding and removing the discomfort that people are protesting for, they needs to be addressed and he knowledge can be gained from those that how by being united the minorities fought for themselves despite the rigorous slavery by the majority whites lead by Cecil Rhodes (Nkopo et al. 2018). Adding to this fully removal will give huge negative impact on the economy since these constructions are giving huge profits to the government as tourist attractions.

Likewise the fully non-removal of the plaques, statues & other constructions will also result in constant and continued hurt to the sentiments of the black population of Britain. So both these recommendations advised and voted by the university members, students, professors and other staff members are not appropriate and best solution to the issue.

Justification for recommending the one particular solution

The one recommendation out of the three arguments can be advised as the best possible solution after analysing the scenario, arguments and thoughts of people presented in the case study above is the only best possible way to change and transform the present conflicting and disputed scenario into a stable and positive outcome. This solution is recommended and suggested only after having an understanding the facts, feelings and figures and evaluating the majority of the number of votes by the university members, students, professors and other staff members. The best thing to do is to advice to turn the structures into museum items are suggested because this is the only way which can fulfil both the sides up to a point. It will protect both the arguments also as it will not be displayed openly and will not keep reminding about the black population past and hurt their sentiments and simultaneously full demolishing will not impact the economy also negatively. This solution will in turn remove the racist feeling imperial statues which the people face daily. There is another reason for this recommendation and that is the positive historic figure and the romanticising statues which were mostly intended to be memorials of the past culture, causes no harm so why protest for full removal or demolishing.

So it will be a clever decision that rather than full-removal or non-removal, it will be quite wise and benefiting to turn the negative into positive one by shifting the sculpture to the Britain museums for attraction.

Conclusion

In the above writing, the discussion is about the headlines which were about the plaques, statues and other constructions during the times when due to the torture and violence by the Britain police George Floyd, a minority black person have to lose his life and after that started the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement initiated in Britain. In this context, there three arguments have been seen to arisen out, one is complete removal and demolishing of the Cecil Rhodes periodic statues and plaques, second is to shift the sculptures to the museum and the last argument is to just keep them without touching. All these three arguments have their own pros and cons and all the people are divided into three sections due to this. Out of these three statements two statements of non-removal and full-demolishing are not perfect in many aspects for the black population and for Britain too except one solution to the issue that is transferring the constructions to the museum. The recommendation and its justification will give a short, simple and clear vision that what should be done for the best. Lastly it can be concluded that whatever the final decision will be, it must respect the feelings, values and culture of people simultaneously must be profitable from the economic perception of Britain.

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References

Chigudu, S., 2020. Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford: a critical testimony. Critical African Studies, 12(3), pp.302-312.

Kearns, G., 2020. Topple the racists 1: decolonising the space and institutional memory of the university. Geography, 105, pp.116-125.

Kwoba, B., Chantiluke, R. and Nkopo, A. eds., 2018. Rhodes must fall: The struggle to decolonise the racist heart of empire. Zed Books Ltd.

Schulz, J., 2019. Must Rhodes fall? The significance of commemoration in the struggle for relations of respect. Journal of Political Philosophy, 27(2), pp.166-186.

tandfonline.com, 2020. The university went to ‘decolonise’ and all they brought back was lousy diversity double-speak! Critical race counter-stories from faculty of colour in ‘decolonial’ times, available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131857.2020.1769601?journalCode=rept20 [Accessed on: 6th February, 2021]

wiley.com, 2020. Should Slavery’s Statues Be Preserved? On Transitional Justice and Contested Heritage, available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/japp.12485 [Accessed on: 27th February, 2021]