Rees: ‘The empty Colston plinth represents where the country and city are right now’

Marvin Rees said that the empty plinth where the statue of Edward Colston once stood “represents where the country and city are right now”.

Rees was interviewed live on Channel 4 News as the programme was filmed at the Bristol Beacon as part of the broadcaster’s Black to Front initiative.

Bristol’s mayor spoke to Keme Nzerem in an interview encompassing racial inequalities, representation, culture wars, wokeness and reparations.

https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/183738283868912

“When you see that empty plinth, what do you see?” asked Nzerem.

Rees answered: “I see something that represents where the country and our city is right now. Somewhere that doesn’t have easy answers, and needs some space to think and reflect on how we’re actually going to tackle racial inequalities in particular and inequalities in general.”

Nzerem told Rees that the toppling of the Colston statue “happened on your watch. Looking back, what do you wish you’d done differently, if anything?”

Rees relied saying “that’s a difficult question because if I say nothing it makes me sound like I have no humility and I think I’m perfect”.

“But I don’t know what other avenues were available to us. We didn’t know it was going to get pulled down. It got pulled down and we dealt with the situation as it faced us.

“But what we did do at the time which I think was really important and has been born out by some of the questions today was to warn people not to get caught up in symbolic acts…

“Remember as well, which is a point of reflection for media, there’s a lot of attention on the statue, very little attention on this building. The name was changed, you don’t see hoards of people coming down to this building.

“We did it in an orderly way which makes me think that some people are getting caught up in the sensation and the conflict, and not in the substance of what we’re actually trying to do with race equality.”

Keme Nzerem was the co-presenter of Channel 4 News live from the Bristol Beacon – photo: Channel 4

“What does the Labour Party need to do do diffuse divisions – which we know are there – about race in this country?” asked Nzerem, a trustee of the Ethical Journalism Network, to Rees, a former journalist.

Standing in the foyer of the Bristol Beacon, Rees replied: “Something we all need to do, I think one of the key challenges when we deal with race and inequality, is to make a clear, make sure there’s an understanding of the relationship between race and class.

“And I think what we need are leaders who don’t trade constituencies off against each other, who don’t create that hostile environment, and by that I don’t just mean blaming foreigners, I mean creating the conditions in which people can actually deal with nuance and contradiction.

“And let me give you one. My mum is white. There is such a thing called white privilege. But my working class mum who lived in a refuge with me as a child for a while, did not lead a life of privilege.”

Growing up in Bristol in the 1970s and 80s, Rees lived with his mum in Lawrence Weston, St Paul’s and Easton – photo: Marvin Rees

On reparations, Rees said that there is a practical model that he would support.

“There is, because you have to restore historical inequalities. But, I think that too easy, some people have jumped on that phrase very glibly, handled it politically unwisely and fed in to the fears of extremist groups who think you’re gonna go and try to take money out of the pockets of disadvantaged white people and that’s not what it’s about.”

Main photo: Channel 4

Read more: 

• Opposition leaders unite to accuse accuse Rees of ‘rank hypocrisy’
• Rees accused of breaching city council code of conduct
• Rees scolds Bristol’s youngest councillor for asking ‘disappointing question’

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