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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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British museums imperialism

mercredi 30 juin 2021 à 02:00

A major London museum insists on its responsibility to "accurately explain the nature of its collections," including how some were acquired through British imperialism, but rejects demands to hide them.

I agree with the museum's general stance. I don't know enough about the specific cases to have opinions on them.

"Decolonization" properly means giving independence to colonies. I object to extending that word to cover removing things from display, because that results in absurd hyperbole. Also, it tries to impose the presumption that two very different issues are just one issue. Opposing colonization does not imply any particular position on what to do with objects in a museum that were acquired from colonization -- or with objects acquired by war (as distinct from colonization).