A group of men were spotted standing guard in front of a statue of George Eliot in Nuneaton, while a Black Lives Matter protest took place a short distance away over the weekend.
Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels, Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–72) and Daniel Deronda (1876).
Eliot – being a critic of slavery and oppression – was not targeted in a list of statues of slavers published by BLM supporters last week.
However, it appears the decision made to protect her monument anyway, with photos of them surrounding the statue triggering scorn online.
Here are some of the best reactions
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Related – New statue appears next to empty Colston plinth poking fun at far right