Removal of Portrait of The Queen at Oxford University Sparks Heated Debate | Good Morning Britain

oxford university students group has sparked absolute outrage and contempt by voting to take down this rather lovely portrait of the queen from its common room because they believe and i quote she represents recent colonial history well the removal of the portrait triggered an immediate backlash with many praising the queen as a pioneer of anti-racism joining us now broadcaster calvin robinson who thinks that the it's ridiculous and disrespectful to remove the queen from the common room and professor kihindi andrews who backs the students all the way uh professor andrews what is your welcome to you both and good to see you both this morning and professor andrews what is the problem with the queen well i mean if we're honest the queen doesn't just represent modern colonialism the queen is probably the number one symbol of white supremacy in the entire world a born to rule elite this really white family uh the head of the commonwealth which is actually the empire even in that picture she's wearing jewels stolen from different parts of the black and brown world i mean if it is 100 honest that's what this that's what the queen represents and if the students decide they don't want the picture in the common room i'm not sure why it's such a big deal i've never been in a student common room they had a picture of the queen in it before you say that's 100 honest i mean let's be honest 99.999 of people would disagree with you particularly when you say she's a symbol of representative white supremacy uh no definitely 99 people would not disagree with me because what else would you say the british monarchy rule britannia where does it get its wealth from its pump from the queen is still the head of state of the country of my father's birth jamaica the queen is still the head of the commonwealth which is predominantly black and brown people there is no doubt and if you actually look at what just happened i mean we had a we all celebrated a black member of a black woman joining the family it was so bad within a couple years she had to leave i mean that's the royal family even the story before about how the royal family weren't um hiring black and brown people what what world do we live in where the royal family is a model advantage you've added to the reasons that the students have taken it down by calling her a white supremacist which i agree with this is adam varsh majority well just to somebody ask a question they've taken it down because they think that she represents colonialism how can that make any sense when this queen has presided over the dismantling of what was left of empire through the commonwealth she's dismantled the colonies she's actually presided over their destruction if you like so how can you possibly call her a colonist she's the opposite of a colonist well one the queen didn't preside over anything the queen's represents the government this let's not pretend that the queen it was the queen that said let's let's have independence two the commonwealth is just the empire you're saying it's dismantled as i just pointed out the queen has actually had a state of 15 countries and the commonwealth empire still exists um so the idea that she's somehow provided over the end of it is completely nonsense but the commonwealth aren't a collection of enslaved countries the commonwealth are the countries that belong to the commonwealth do so purely voluntarily it's not it's not it's it's not it's not an empire it just doesn't delay you can't call it an empire because it's not uh it's it may have changed slightly but countries like jamaica are a part of the commonwealth because their echo their economies are still heavily dependent on colonial ideas and practices this is actually why countries stay in the commonwealth the idea they suddenly changed and everything's great it's completely nonsense actually most of the most parts of the former colonies are still in a very deeply colonial relationship economically to the uk and the queen represents that as well so the students are 100 percent right i think it's ironic that the students at maudlin are benefiting from one of the best educations you can get on the planet at a college which has its roots in colonialism it was founded in the in the middle 1400s and most of its funding its initial funding um came from empire it's bit ironic isn't it that they've taken the picture of the queen down well that's the same for me i born in britain and britain's based on the the prophets of empire in this label of my family what am i supposed to do do badly and not succeed because this is where the wealth comes from that's just the unfortunate reality and actually having someone who's spoken at modern college and been there it's not just the queen portia that's a problem it's all of the portraits you go in there he's an assault of dead white men that place is so violent to black and brown people it's not that queen should be the first one they take down and they should be taken down a lot more well calvin robinson you um as we can see from the screen are in oxford are you at an oxford college uh do you know the situation with mordelin personally i am at an oxford college i won't say which one for obvious reasons but i've got my portrait of her majesty up there in my college room and we have one in our common room thankfully very proudly so supporting british values and i think you know we're arguing two different issues here i thought this was going to be you know a republican argument or an anti-monarchist argument it's not it's an anti-colonialist argument which is fine but the professor's trying to make it a race issue as he always does saying things like the queen is from a very white family and there are lots of portraits of dead white men i think that's offensive i think he needs to calm down with the racism but you know as richard as richard ryden said the queen's had a strong hand if not the strongest hand in unwinding the empire her majesty queen is the biggest decolonizer you know the commonwealth is a union of choice it's nations that have opted to remain together for strength and for unity and that's the thing to be celebrated and to try and conflate that with the empire it's disingenuous isn't it especially when you're saying let's be 100 honest that's not honesty at all and what this is it's a load of students being woke being social justice warriors wanting to prove that they're good people let's decolonize our colonial university campus it's like it really is that we're doing you're virtually signaling to previous aren't you jumping on a bandwagon put it back in a rifle aren't um aren't students doing something in the time-honored sort of tradition of students which is to be a little bit radical to exercise their freedom of speech to get involved in votes um to exercise their freedom to be able to partake in a democracy and all of those are very important values as well they are i absolutely support democracy and having a vote and all of that susana you have spot on there and i wonder if they put this vote to the wider college how uh the results would look um i reckon i reckon that most people would say put the queen back in a rightful place and let's stop being silly and playing uh silly politics with uh with her our majesty because her majesty queen is our sovereign you know she's more than a person she represents the crown but she's also a british institution representing all that unites us and that's something again to celebrate especially in a divisive age that we live in listen we're about about 40 miles from oxford here in our studios in london but even so i think i can detect sounds of giggling uh coming from these students as they watch the telly this morning because of the fuss that they've caused it's a wind-up isn't it i mean they because actually historically what they're saying makes no sense at all or even in a contemporary way it's a wind-up isn't it it's a student wind up professor andrews no i mean this is this is hilarious virtues this is only news because the right-wing press made a deal of it the students didn't do this to get into the news the students on their conscience said actually you know what this is really strange why would you have a good picture of the queen this is there's not a place for this and took a vote and decided it's only because of you guys and the right-wing press making an issue they didn't take it to the basement you didn't have to well you didn't have to come on the program you're part of it you know so don't don't blame us the students the students aren't putting it on tv the students just made a decision which they have every right to do it and it's this conflict rage that comes from the right wing that's the issue that's why it's new well i don't think you're getting a sense of i don't think you're getting a sense of rage from this program i think you're getting a sense of benign amusement frankly from the grown-ups but i just want to come back to uh to calvin just answer that point if you wouldn't mind you're in oxford do you think it's a windup do you think they're just basically you know sticking their fingers in in our eyes here i don't think they're trolling us i genuinely think they're virtue signaling they're jumping on you know as students do the latest bandwagon it was black lives matter before that was extinction rebellion they want to be seen to be good people rather than actually spending time doing good works it's much easier to i know let's remove a portrait from our common room isn't it and all i have to say is you can't cancel the queen you know god save the queen shall we leave it there that feels like that feels like the perfect note um thank you so much calvin and uh professor kindly angie thank you very much you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 277,755

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, clash, debate, the queen, oxford, students, Professor Kehinde Andrews, Royal, Calvin Robinson, heated debate

Id: Mh5sJyhnQJE

Length: 8min 28sec (508 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 09 2021