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.
Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive.
Just invited him to dinner?
We get in our PC Time Machines and we judge historical figures by 21st Century SJW standards.
Did he invite the black man to marry his daughter? Were there any transgenders at the dinner? Did he apologize for his white privilege prior to dessert?
What these anarchists want is to remove the US completely, and are doing so one piece at a time.
Time to tell them to go to hell!
Anyone “calling” for anything to be removed needs to be shot on sight.
These “progressives” are going to be surprised what is in the box they are opening. Subhuman commie trash.
How long before the Left calls for the renaming or removal of the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the Washington Monument? Mount Vernon also has to go. This drive to eradicate history will not stop without forceful response and they want a violent response to further justify their violence. What to do...
Lot's of people never got a dinner.....
Uncle Remus, who said to Uncle Ben, "You're a credit to your rice." Never got a dinner!
Because they don't want their building to be blown up, lit on fire or vandalized.
The freaking city gov't who are holding back the police are to be blamed.
Just like ISIS..the Antifa Commie left agenda is to destroy EVERYTHING that America stands for and turn it into their vision
A good, all American name.
F'n Taliban.
You must not have read the article
I wonder the same thing but even if we don't listen the millions and millions who watch fake media every day will hear it and eventually agree.
Ping.
Aren’t there any Woodrow Wilson statues around? Perhaps in Princeton (NJ)? TR was strong in support of a color-blind Civil Service but Woodrow Wilson basically ‘white-washed’ them all out!
Expecting today’s SJW nazis to know history is probably hopeless as even their teachers were never taught it!
Last night on the Charlie Rose show, Al Sharpton called for the removal of the Jefferson Monument. It’s coming.
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