Are the conquistadors next? After a protest where a man was shot, a statue of Juan de Oñate was recently removed in Albuquerque. Can Coronado and the rest be far behind? There have been complaints in California about honoring Junipero Serra for years. I’m not sure what the way forward should be, but there’s potentially a whole lot of re-naming work to be done.
Pander to the “offended” . Rename everything to when there were no people at all in the US. Like that Grand Canyon would be the Big Ditch, Mississippi River that long wet thingy, the Rockies , ragged rocks…etc.
For me, the litmus test is “was this statue erected by a white supremacist organization in the 20th century for the purpose of terrorizing the black community, who were starting to demand civil rights?” That applies to the vast majority of Confederate statues in the US, unfortunately. I’m fairly adamant that these all go. Another generation’s terroristic threats towards another race must be made a high priority for removal. This applies to the so-called “Confederate flag” too. It’s really the Klan flag, and has been used to terrorize black folks for over a century, since at least The Birth of a Nation.
I wouldn’t say the same about a random Columbus statue, or the Washington Monument, or almost anything else. But I would support the locals if they wanted it gone, for whatever reason.
Activists removed statues of a male and female pioneer at the University of Oregon a few days ago, citing that the statues were linked to white supremacy in Oregon. I was dubious about that claim until I read about the dedication remarks, which included statements professing white supremacy.
The point is when you know better, you do better.
We know better.
It’s time to do better.