Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten has dismissed calls from student campaigners to remove a statue of colonial-era politician Cecil Rhodes from of the university\u2019s Oriel College as an attempt to rewrite history.<\/p>\n
Patten, whose role at the university is largely ceremonial, said in a speech Wednesday: \u201cOur history is not a blank page on which we can write our own version of what it should have been, according to our contemporary views and prejudices.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBecause we value tolerance … we have to listen to those who presume they can rewrite history within the confines of their own notion of what is politically, culturally and morally correct.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Patten\u2019s comments come after the campaign to remove the statue by the group \u201cRhodes Must Fall\u201d<\/em> made headlines in recent weeks. The campaign was launched in May, shortly after a statue of Rhodes, who has been described as the father of apartheid, was removed from the University of Cape Town in South Africa following a mass campaign.<\/p>\n Commenting on Patten\u2019s remarks, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, a PhD student at the university and one of the founding members of Rhodes Must Fall, told BBC\u2019s Radio 4: \u201cWe think Oxford is institutionally racist and throughout its history it has had significant biases towards black people. The first black student was only accepted in 1938.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The reaction of the leaders of Oxford University to the #RhodesMustFall<\/a> nonsense has been quite heartening. Yale and Princeton take note.<\/p>\n \u2013 Toby Young (@toadmeister) January 13, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Oriel College has said it will hold a six-month consultation exercise with students on what to do with the statue. The college has already announced it plans to take down a Rhodes plaque on a property owned by the college.<\/p>\n In a letter to the Guardian, a group of around 200 Rhodes scholars said the scholarships won\u2019t \u201cbuy their silence\u201d<\/em> about Rhodes\u2019 problematic legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no hypocrisy in being a recipient of a Rhodes scholarship and being publicly critical of Cecil Rhodes and his legacy,\u201d<\/em> they wrote.<\/p>\n Rhodes, a diamond magnate and imperialist, played a central role in Britain\u2019s colonial expansion in Africa. After his death, Rhodes bequeathed a part of his fortune to Oxford to establish the prestigious Rhodes scholarship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten has dismissed calls from student campaigners to remove a statue of colonial-era politician Cecil Rhodes from of the university\u2019s Oriel College as an attempt to rewrite history. Patten, whose role at the university is largely ceremonial, said in a speech Wednesday: \u201cOur history is not a blank page on which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n