Lewis Hamilton backs protesters who pulled down Edward Colston statue
Lewis Hamilton has supported unequivocally the actions of protesters who pulled down the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Hamilton is the only black driver in Formula One and has been outspoken in his condemnation of the killing of George Floyd and his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Hamilton also condemned the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, insisting the UK deserves better leaders.
Last week Hamilton called out his fellow drivers for staying silent on the Floyd killing and then said he had been overcome with rage at events in the US. On Monday the six-time world champion posted on Instagram that he believed the protestors in Bristol had done the right thing and insisted Colston’s statue should be left where it was after being thrown into the harbour.
“If those people hadn’t taken down that statue honouring a racist slave trader, it would never have been removed,” he said. “There’s talks of it going into a museum. That man’s statue should stay in the river just like the 20,000 African souls who died on the journey here and were thrown into the sea, with no burial or memorial.
“He stole them from their families, their country and he must not be celebrated. It should be replaced with a memorial for all those he sold, all those that lost their lives!”
Colston built his fortune from the slave trade as part of the English Royal African Company and transported more than 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas. He bequeathed much of his wealth to institutions in Bristol and, after his death in 1721, the city erected the statue in 1895.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, has condemned the toppling of the statue as “utterly disgraceful”. But F1’s sporting director, Ross Brawn, said the sport fully backed Hamilton’s position.
“Lewis is a great ambassador for the sport, his comments are very valid and we support him completely,” he said.
Brawn also confirmed that F1 was proactively addressing diversity. The sport was committed to changing grassroots racing in order to encourage the entry of minority groups into F1.
“We are looking at how we can have a really, really basic karting initiative to get kids involved at a very early stage,” he said. “F1 is a meritocracy but we can give greater opportunity to minority and ethnic groups to get involved in motor sport. Not just driving but engineering and other activities.”
F1 is due to begin its season in Austria on 5 July but is still waiting for confirmation of an exemption to the government’s 14-day UK entry quarantine period. The government has been criticised for not imposing the restriction much earlier in the outbreak and Hamilton joined the chorus of dissent.
“I’m appalled at the UK government on how they have handled Covid,” he posted. “You should have closed the borders months ago. How you can let people fly in from countries without being tested is baffling. You could have saved thousands of lives. We need better leaders!”