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Journalism of Courage
With anti-racism protests raging across the US and other countries, an intense re-examination of historical figures over racial injustices has come to the forefront. Following George Floyd’s death and spread of Black Lives Matter movement, various confederate monuments have been either been pulled down or vandalised. And one controversial figure has come back into the spotlight— Christopher Columbus.
Protesters in many US cities have called for the removal of statues of Columbus, arguing that the Italian explorer is responsible for the genocide and exploitation of native Americans. Statues of the 15th-century explorer and the Spanish conquistadors who followed him and colonized much of the Americas have become targets for demonstrators in US cities but not in Spain, where he is celebrated widely.
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In the wake of Floyd’s death in police custody, rage has extended to statues of slave traders, imperialists, conquerors and explorers around the world, including Christopher Columbus, Winston Churchill, Cecil Rhodes and Belgium’s King Leopold II, among others.
As of now, three statues of Columbus have been pulled out or vandalised by demonstrators in the US. In St. Paul, demonstrators toppled a ten-foot-tall statue installed in front of the Minnesota state capitol. Protesters in Richmond pulled down the statue in Byrd Park and set it on fire first before throwing it into the nearby Fountain Lake. In Boston, police received a report that a marble statue of the Italian explorer and colonizer had lost its head on Wednesday. The Columbus statue was also taken down in Camden, New Jersey. The city of Camden released a statement Thursday evening calling the statue in Farnham Park, a “controversial symbol” that has “long pained residents of the community.”
[with inputs from AP]
