DON’T TOUCH CHRIS
GOV WON’T SAY GOODBYE, COLUMBUS AS HEADS (OF STATUES) ROLL AROUND U.S.
Gov. Cuomo defended keeping statue of Christopher Columbus in the city Thursday as bust of the controversial colonizer was toppled in St. Paul, Minn.
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo is standing by his man.
The governor again defended New York City’s Christopher Columbus statue on Thursday, calling it a point of pride for Italian Americans like himself, as similar tributes to the explorer have been removed or targeted by protesters in recent days.
“I understand the feelings about Christopher Columbus and some of his acts, which nobody would support, but the statue has come to represent and signify appreciation for the Italian American contribution to New York,” Cuomo said during a briefing in Albany. “For that reason, I support it.”
Civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, has boosted support for removing tributes to historical figures with problematic pasts such as Columbus and Confederate leaders in the South.
A group of Native American protesters pulled down a statue of the Italian icon in Saint Paul, Minn., and a likeness of Columbus was beheaded in Boston this week.
Another statue of the explorer was tossed into a lake in Richmond, Va., and a bronze effigy of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was toppled in the wake of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday she wants to see the names of Confederate leaders removed from American military bases and statues of them taken out of the U.S. Capitol.
“The American people know these names have to go. These names are white supremacists that said terrible things about our coun
try,” she said. “Some of these names were given to these bases. You listen to who they are and what they said and then you have the president make a case as to why a base should be named for them. He seems to be the only person left who doesn’t get it.”
President Trump openly opposes the removal of Confederate statues and monuments from public spaces and said Wednesday he would “not even consider” renaming Army bases.
The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee, meanwhile, bucked the president by adopting an amendment creating a commission charged with renaming bases honoring Confederate leaders who fought to uphold slavery.
In Albany, Mayor Kathy Sheehan announced Thursday that the state capital will be removing a statue of Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler because he was a slave owner.
“I have signed an executive order directing the removal of the statue honoring Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler — reportedly the largest owner of enslaved people in Albany during his time — from in front of Albany City Hall,” Sheehan tweeted.
Betty Lyons, a citizen of the upstate Onondaga Nation and president and executive director of the American Indian Law Alliance, said Cuomo is on the wrong side of the Columbus controversy, tying the troubled history of the 15th century explorer and his role in sparking colonial oppression and the slave trade directly to the current political climate.
“Until the larger society confronts those oppressions head-on, and realizes that the symbols of that oppression go far beyond the Confederate flag, peace will not come to the land,” Lyons said. “Until then, Cuomo, as does Trump, continues to have his knee on our necks.”
The governor has repeatedly maintained his support of Columbus despite opposition from both Native Americans and Latin American groups. Last year, he dismissed calls to remove the statue, or rename Columbus Circle, as he marched in the Columbus Day parade in Manhattan.
“The Christopher Columbus statue was erected at a time when the Italian American community was being attacked,” he said at the time. “The Christopher Columbus statue was more about solidarity with the Italian American community and respect for the Italian American community and that’s why the Italian American community was so offended that they could take down the Christopher Columbus statue.”
Columbus Day itself has become a point of contention with several cities and states, including Maine, Vermont, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C., renaming the federal holiday Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
It’s also not Cuomo’s first statue standoff. The governor’s longstanding rivalry with Mayor de Blasio bubbled over last year as he announced he would bypass the mayor and fund a statue of Mother Cabrini, an Italian immigrant and Roman Catholic saint, with state money.
The decision, announced on Columbus Day, was made after the city excluded Cabrini from an initiative honoring women with statues around New York.