Posted on 08/15/2017 12:42:36 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Hundreds of activists gathered at the American Museum of Natural History on Monday to take down the “racist” statue of Theodore Roosevelt and an urgent call to rename Columbus Day.
More than 200 people cheered outside the museum as activists covered the statue of Roosevelt on horseback flanked by an African American and Native American on either side and demanded it be ultimately removed.
“A stark embodiment of the white supremacy that Roosevelt himself espoused and promoted,” the group explained in a statement. “The statue is seen as an affront to all who pass it on entering the museum, but especially to African and Native Americans.”
Activists from the groups NYC Stands with Standing Rock and Decolonize This Place organized the protest to draw attention to the museum’s encouragement of racist tropes, and implored New York City to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.
Anti-Columbus Day protest Columbus Day controversially commemorates Christopher Columbus reportedly arriving in the Americas on 12 October 1492. Columbus is believed to have brutally enslaved the indigenous people upon his arrival and imposed harsh punishments, including torture. His arrival also ushered in European settlers to the Americas who waged wars against Native Americans and brought diseases with them that had a lasting devastating effect.
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There is growing movement to change the name of Columbus Day. In the past year cities in 10 different states have moved to change the name to Indigenous People’s Day, the largest being in Phoenix, Arizona. However, opposition remains in places like Oklahoma City, and Cincinnati.
In New York, the Columbus Day Parade attracted 35,000 marchers and many more viewers. It’s considered a celebration of Italian heritage given Columbus was born near Genoa.
“This is Indigenous People’s Day,” said Kandia Crazy Horse, a country singer who is a member of the Pamunkey tribe of Virginia. “In celebrating this, we’re trying to see that New York City and the rest of Turtle Island [North America] ratifies Indigenous People’s Day as an … annual event that’s counter to the Christopher Columbus narrative and Columbus Day.”
Amin Husain, an artist and organizer with Decolonize This Place, said they had been working on Monday’s protest for about three weeks. He said it was important to debunk what was being shown in the museum.
“This is the most coveted museum,” said Husain. “I think that people are ignorant. It’s a white supremacist society. It doesn’t seem like it’s important [renaming the day] but it is super important” for oppressed people.
The group started with a 10-stop tour of the museum in which they highlighted a variety of exhibits they felt were racist and misrepresentative, which ranged from how the representation of Africans reinforces negative stereotypes to the exoticizing of Islam in the Hall of Islam exhibit. “Where is the Hall of Christendom?” one of the tour guides asked.
“It’s just to echo what this is, it’s really a hall of white supremacy, that’s what this is,” said Nitasha Dhillon, one of the organizers.
Ash J (@AshAgony) The scene outside of @AMNH today as #DecolonizeThisPlace's anti-#ColumbusDay tour covered the Teddy Roosevelt statue. (pic: @hoods4justice) pic.twitter.com/USiNOV0wie
October 11, 2016 At the end of the tour in the hall, activists began chanting, “Respect! Remove! Rename!” before swarming around the large dinosaur skeletons in the lobby with signs that read, “DECOLONIZE THIS MUSEUM”, “ABOLISH WHITE SUPREMACY” and “BLACK LIVES MATTER”.
“Teddy Roosevelt’s nature was not empty wilderness. It was and is indigenous land,” one reader said as the organizers took turns reading from a speech. “Taken through violence. Just like Columbus who came to enslave. To take their gold and their bodies and their souls.”
Musicians played songs from the Lenape tribe, whose territory the city sits on, and activists walked through the crowd with burning sage.
Outside about 25 police officers arrived as the group attempted to shield Roosevelt’s statue with a green material, but there were no arrests.
Ping.
They were ignored last night in Durham, NC and they toppled a Confederate statue.
I like the passage in the Rough Riders where Teddy wrote that the 1st Volunteer Cavalry had performed excellently, because it equaled the performance of the 10th regular cavalry in charging up Breeds Hill and San Juan Hill. The 10th cavalry were an all black regiment known as the “Buffalo Soldiers”.
AVADA KEDAVRA!!
Many of us will remember this in 2018 voting.
What’s Sessions doing?? These people need to be dealt with swiftly & harshly. Give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.
Well they are tearing down MY country’s history ... PHYSICALLY TEARING IT DOWN. I’m not going to ignore that. It is a good thing I wasn’t there. I can’t remember being more infuriated at anything I’ve seen on TV as that statue coming down in Durham and seeing those people kick it. I would have waited till they went back to their cars and got their license numbers and then ...
You got it!!!!
Columbus, OH.
They can protest a whole city!
Yep...they will fight. They have breeded them to hate whitey for decades. Hate America too. Thanks to the brownshirt teaching in public school systems.
Agree 100%. As to why anyone is listening to these morons...it’s because it’s an easy way to demonize Donald Trump, that’s why. Bill Kristol is saying that he’s “Given up on expecting moral leadership from Donald Trump.†Kristol has been bashing Trump since DAY ONE! And he now implies he used to look to Trump for moral leadership?! LIAR!
Trump is taking on the rude media at this moment who are asking about the monuments. The President asked them, where does it stop???
Wow...didn’t know that. Forgot about the Buffalo Soldiers.
Yes indeed. Rush was talking about it today. And it won't be long before they will be coming onto private property and demanding flags and statues be removed there, too.
This article is 11 months old!
If there was only some way to concentrate these people into camps or some such, where they would be out of the way of decent people.
I’ve lived in NYC all but 1 of my nearly 60 years, and have been to this museum too many times to count. They have both a Native American and African hall. Both are excellent and highly respectful of these people and their way of life. Over the decades millions of school kids, including many African-American kids, got to learn about their cultures and see for themselves the actual things they used in their daily lives. I’m sure many of today’s social scientists and anthropologists were inspired in part from childhood visits there. Scientists who later went on to work with and help these groups.
Sorry. I should have added FLASHBACK to this article. It is from 11 months ago.
But many (Rush etc) have made the point that there’s no end to the SJW ISIS-like removal of American history.
Woodrow Wilson will be on the list. FDR (didn’t integrate the military in WW2). MLK Jr. (suggested NOT judging people by the color of their skin, which is reactionary; was a cis-gendered non-inclusive Christian preacher). Bill Clinton (opposed gay marriage and supported 3 strikes and welfare reform).
In 50 years we’ll be full Orwellian with no statues or history. That way the next generation can be completely raised by the State.
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