This week we debated whether or not we should take down statues of people who profited from the slave trade. The debate centered on whether statues are used for remembering the past or celebrating it: does a statue of a slave-trader justify slavery, even cerebrate it, or just remember it. This debate was won and lost on the issue of how these statues affect today’s society, and especially people of African descent: do these statues make racism worse, do they glorify the slavery of the past, not only making it seem acceptable, but laudable. And does this then make our society more racist, bringing with that all the harms of racism? Our debating teams have one more week to prepare for our first schools’ competition – The Lancaster University Schools Debating Competition. There will only be one more debating session to practice – next Friday at 3.00 in Room 9.

 

Mr Ahern & Mr Murphy