Should Universities Remove Statues of Imperialists and Politicians?

This report analyzes the issue of whether to remove statues of imperialists and politicians from universities in the UK. It examines arguments for and against removing these statues and recommends focusing on education to combat racism and discrimination.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The present report is based on the study of whether the Universities within the United
Kingdom should focus on removing the statues and memorials of the imperialists, and politicians
from the country or not. It also aims to determine whether eliminating these memorials will
actually benefit the nation and restrict the general public from practicing racism or not.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................4
Tearing down history...................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Communication skills can be described as the abilities of an individual that allows them
to transfer and receive the information with others. The present report is based on the issue of
whether to remove the statues, plaques and other constructions glorifying the past slave owners
from the Universities of the United Kingdom or not. The present report will aim to analyse the
article arguing removing the statues from the universities will tear the history. Therefore, it will
determine whether to remove them or not and will recommend the most appropriate option.
ANALYSIS
Tearing down history
On June 7, several protestors tore down the statue of Edward Colston and dumped the
same. This also highlighted the issue of removing the statue of Cecil Rhodes from the campus of
the Oxford University in context of the campaign Black Lives Matter. The protestors have made
a list of around 78 Statues all over the UK that they think needs to be taken down as these statues
represents a bad message and glorifying the same will be wrong. After considering these articles,
for a second, the management of the oxford University decided to take down the statue of the
Cecil Rhodes, however, Professor Richardson argued that eradicating the history from the nation
will not lead to the encouragement of a new and enhanced perception within the individuals of
today. The Professor stated that discrimination and racism should not be tolerated and is wrong
to practice within the country but what is the guarantee that removing all the 78 statues including
the statue of Cecil Rhodes from the university will restrict the people of our nation from
practicing racism and discrimination (Shmidman, and Ehrlich, 2019). The professor conveyed
that instead of removing the history by eliminating the statues, one should focus on how the
teachers and professors can develop a feeling of equality and respect the diversity within the
individuals living in the country. The teachers should focus on educating the students rather than
supporting them in context of such campaign.
There are people who supported the article publishing by Hunt in the year 2020. Many
people think that it is the truth that eliminating and removing the statutes of Colston and Cecil

Rhodes from the Universities is not a solution to the problems that exists within the nation
Today. The problems that exist within the country are much bigger than the problems that were
faced by people back then. Removing the statue of Cecil Rhodes from the Oxford University
does not provide the students with a guarantee that the practices such as discrimination, racial
discrimination, gender discrimination and other issues will get resolved within the country. In
order to eliminate these issues from the society, it is important for the university to educate the
students as well as the other public living within the country (Schartel Dunn, and Lane, 2019).
This will help the University in actually eradicating the existing issues from the countries and
actually changing the mind-set and the perception of the people living within the country.
On the other hand, there are several individuals within the university as well as the
existing population within the country that are completely against the concept of not removing
the statues from the Universities. It has been determined that various individuals’ states that
keeping the statutes of people that used to gain advantage from harming the other individuals of
the nation is not right. A few people presented their views against the concept of keeping the
statures within the University and argued that keeping the statues within the college will mean
that the such practices are still going on within the country and that the existing population is
providing the monuments with respect even when these statues did not deserve the same. This is
so, because many individuals within the country or the students of the university thinks that
keeping the statues within the university will provide the general public a wrong message. What
they mean to say is that people will get an image that one can still get enough respect and can be
worshipped within a nation even after carrying out wrongful activities within the country.
Therefore, it can be said, there are a few number of people within the country who are
completely against the idea of keeping the statutes within the college or university as their
perception in this scenario is that even though everyone knows that eliminating the statues will
not change the minds of the people with respect to racism and discrimination but no individual
should promote and highlight those people who are famous for doing something wrong within
the country (Boucher, and et.al 2020). Similarly, Edward Colston and Cecil Rhodes were famous
for gaining benefit by harming other people and making them his slaves. Therefore, the
Universities should remove the statures from the Oxford University.
Lastly, there were certain people who were neutral with respect to the whole scenario.
This means there were people who were neither in favour of removing the statues from the

university and nor they were interested in keeping the statues as it is within the college or
university in the country. These people were least interested in commenting about the whole
situation. They had nothing to do with participating the campaign that promotes removal of the
Cecil Rhodes statue from the college and nor they had any interest in commenting on whether
the statues should be kept still or not (Yaseen, and et.al ). These individuals were neither
interested in understanding and remembering the history of a country nor they think that
eliminating the statues from the university will help the country in resolving the existing issues
that are persistent within the nation currently. These individuals were more focused on enhancing
themselves by educating themselves on their own rather than fighting with other people and
arguing that removing the statues will help the nation in restricting the general public of the
country from practicing, discrimination, racism, biased behaviour and such important issues.
CONCLUSION
Fromm the above report, it can be concluded that each and every individual living within
a nation has its own point of view, perception and opinions in context of the provided issues. The
present report has highlighted the issue of glorifying the concept of imperialists that got
benefitted from harming the other people within the country. The present report states the views
of different individual in the context of the provided issue. There were certain individuals who
supported that the statues of these imperialists should be taken down while some argued that
removing the history from the country won’t lead the people towards the path of enlightenment.
RECOMMENDATION
Out of the three provided articles, the best suited and the most appropriate article is the
tearing down of history. As per the arguments provided within this article, it can be stated that
there is no benefit in removing and taking down the statues from the country. The present
recommendations are in the favour of this article. The present article states that one should never
practice racism and discrimination within the country and should never even think about
tolerating the same (Back, A., Tulsky, J.A. and Arnold, 2020). If an individual has faced any
kind of racism within the nation, they have every right and opportunity to complain about the
same. However, one will get no benefit by removing the elements of the history from the
country. The path to enlightenment does not pass through eliminating the history from the
country. These statues are a part of history and whatever these individuals did was done

according to that period of time. Therefore, one cannot completely blame these imperialists of
the discrimination and the racism that takes place. And, there is no guarantee that eliminating
these statues from the country will change the people living within the country and restrict
themselves from practicing the same. Therefore, the teachers and professors of the University
should focus on educating the students and change their mind-sets and educate them about what
is tight or wrong instead of supporting them in such campaigns that allow the put pressure on the
Universities in the removal of the statues from the country. This article focuses more on
enhancing the education level of the students within the University rather than focusing on
elimination of the different statues available within the country. This is because removing the
history from the country does not provide the guarantee that the today’s generation will not
practice racism within the country. Therefore, the management of the Oxford University should
also focus of educating the students within the college and make them understand that removing
something from the history is not the way to deal with racial discrimination. In order to deal with
this issue within the country, the teachers should try to inculcate a range of values and morals
among the individuals which would help them removing the same from the country instead of
fighting with the management for the purpose of eliminating the statues from the nation.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Back, A., Tulsky, J.A. and Arnold, R.M., 2020. Communication skills in the age of COVID-
19. Annals of internal medicine, 172(11), pp.759-760.
Shmidman, A. and Ehrlich, U., 2019. “We shall glorify You, our King”: A Poetic Passage in the
Second Benediction of the Grace after Meals. On Wings of Prayer. Sources of Jewish
Worship. Essays in Honor of Professor Stefan C. Reif on the Occasion of his Seventy-
Fifth Birthday, pp.317-35.
Schartel Dunn, S.G. and Lane, P.L., 2019. Do interns know what they think they know?
Assessing business communication skills in interns and recent graduates. Business and
Professional Communication Quarterly, 82(2), pp.202-213.
Boucher, V.G., and et.al 2020. Evaluation of communication skills among physicians: A
systematic review of existing assessment tools. Psychosomatic medicine, 82(4), pp.440-
451.
Yaseen, T., and et.al Importance of Communication Skills for Successful Career.
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