Bristol’s class bigotry
By Pete North - June 16, 2020
A work of new work of art has appeared in Bristol by the plinth of the unceremoniously removed Colston statue, described as “Fantastic” by Caleb Sivyer [Academic researching gender theory, visual culture, women’s writing. Senior Lecturer at UWE Bristol].
In the eyes of liberal academia, this is no doubt stunning and brave, but if we’re doing damning stereotype statues then how well do Pakistani and black men fare? We have to be inclusive after all. I wonder if such works would still be the toast of Bristol then? Methinks not. More than likely it would come close to a criminal offence, perhaps even qualifying as outraging public decency.
What’s striking about it (apart from the absence of subtlety) is how dated the stereotype is. It may still exist in small pockets of the country (not that it ever was mainstream) but the depiction of the string vest bewildered skinhead dates back to the early eighties. I didn’t even see an approximation of it manifesting at the demonstration on Saturday.
As a recent resident of Bristol, of some ten years, this does seem to fit the fashionable fetishisation of the eighties, perhaps the last time it was common to see para booted skinheads with fascist adornments, back when being a self-styled “antifa” was relevant. These days it’s a virtue signalling pose by younglings desperate to have that same moral purpose in their empty lives.
As others have noted, this is one of those art pieces (like Banksy) that says so much more about the artist than the subject. “It says that no matter how sincere, polite or kind-hearted you may be, this is how the people who rule you see you”. Basically, untermensch. Like the rebellion against Brexit, this is a middle class liberal supremacist war on the working class. This is their latest slander.
I would not, though, seek its removal if that is the artist’s intent. If this became an actual statue, as offensive as it is, I’d want it to stay as a permanent reminder of what liberal academia thought of the working class. A snapshot in time of elite values, much like the Colston statue.
The skinhead depicted cuts a pitiable figure; an unwanted remnant of a dying generation unable to comprehend the modern world. But then liberal academia is not far behind. Its perceptions of Britain are dated and out of touch, as is their comprehension of the world around them.
From Brexit to Trump, it’s always explained away by simplistic, comforting and condescending narratives. We were all tricked by a bus, or Russian bots or sophisticated internet hypno-toads. Anything but credit the working class with agency. Just a lumpen mass of racists in need of correction by liberal betters.
This delusion is dangerous. This is what motivates them to sanitise our public spaces, television history, and soon, film and literature. So little faith in the fundamental dignity and decency of their fellow Brits, they believe we must be insulated from anything they deem a dangerous idea in the belief it’s the only way to stop racism.
We’ve seen this zealotry before. The belief that the nation state and national sovereignty is ultimately the cause of war, so through the decades they used their institutional influence to further enmesh us in the apparatus of the EU with a view to erasing European nations. They did not take kindly to Brexit so now they’re waging a culture war against all of us. It won’t stop here. It started with a statue, but our liberal master race has a coup in mind. This latest artwork is perhaps the first statue of the new regime.