{"id":22,"date":"2020-07-06T00:39:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T00:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/5f02375c00c26b0017b8e45d"},"modified":"2020-08-08T04:03:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T04:03:05","slug":"why-are-the-statues-of-columbus-being-taken-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2dpoint.net\/why-are-the-statues-of-columbus-being-taken-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are the statues of Columbus being taken down?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
    \n
  1. Humans love stories, and most countries are formed around stories of heroism to create a sense of unity and belonging.<\/li>\n
  2. When America gained independence from Britain, it too needed a hero but, for obvious reasons, a non-British.<\/li>\n
  3. Columbus, an Italian, is said to have sighted America in 1492, but he never really set foot on the lands of modern-day\u2019s {tooltip}North America?<\/sup>{end-text} He went to modern-day\u2019s Caribbean islands, central and South America.{end-tooltip} & was no hero till 1770s.<\/li>\n
  4. But when America’s war of independence started in 1775, Columbus was most suited to fill the vacant spot of a hero – he was courageous, unconventional, intelligent, non-British and had been subjected to bad treatment and put in jail by the Spanish monarch (who had at first sponsored his voyage).<\/li>\n
  5. Anti-monarchy sentiment was quite prevalent at the time and this gained Columbus huge popularity.<\/li>\n
  6. But his popularity grew exponentially in 1890-1915 because of the excessive migration from poverty-stricken Italy to the US during that period.<\/li>\n
  7. Disadvantaged Italians faced discrimination, so they embraced Columbus to argue their belongingness in America.<\/li>\n
  8. Then a social club, Knights of Columbus, founded by Italian migrants grew in influence and convinced the US President in 1937 to proclaim Columbus Day a federal holiday.<\/li>\n
  9. In 1939, WWII broke out and many Native Americans aided the US in the war but their efforts were not adequately recognised after the war ended in 1945.<\/li>\n
  10. This and other discriminatory practices gave rise to Native American activism.<\/li>\n
  11. This continued at a low pace but took centerstage during the 1960s civil rights movement, which was led by the black community against discrimination.<\/li>\n
  12. The demand for change during the civil rights protests also made Native Americans a part of the conversation and historians began re-examining Columbus & his stories.<\/li>\n
  13. Historians, then\u00a0corrected the myth and included stories of the slave trade, barbaric acts of torturing, beheadings and mass murders, Columbus had executed in Hispaniola (modern-day\u2019s G
    \n,reater Antilles
    \nisland in West Indies).<\/li>\n
  14. Gradually, Columbus & many others became controversial figures and their monuments became a subject of national debate.<\/li>\n
  15. This debate has remained especially heated after Dylann Roof killed nine African Americans in a Church in 2015, supposedly to ‘start a race war’.<\/li>\n
  16. George Floyd\u2019s death has again brought the issue to the fore and statues of these personalities are being seen as racial symbols.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

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