"Why Are the Statues Falling?" by Prof. Manuela Boatcă

Over the past months, US and European cities have seen numerous statues knocked off their pedestals, covered in graffiti, sprayed with blood-red paint and, in some cases, removed by the authorities, scared of the protesters’ rage. The targets are invariably men who held power capital, at various times in history, which they employed both for political and economic reasons, as well as for fostering slavery and racism. What place do these statues hold in the collective memory and why are they being contested right now?