Charity sorry for ‘colonial’ $14.92 donation

THE organisation behind the US Women’s March has apologised after requesting donations of $14.92 – as the number is seen as “colonial”.

The group, founded in 2017 after an international series of protests against the election of Donald Trump, sent an email requesting $14.92 as that was the average size of donations.

It received a series of complaints about the connotations of the sum, as it echoed the year that Christopher Colombus arrived in the Americas.

His legacy has become a political flashpoint, with critics adamant that the man who “discovered” America was responsible for the mass slaughter of Native Americans that followed.

Many local and state authorities have renamed Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day out of respect for those killed in the late 15th century. The Women’s March tweeted: “It was an oversight on our part to not make the connection to a year of colonisation, conquest, and genocide for Indigenous people.”

The group was mocked on Twitter for the post, with the Republican senator Ted Cruz tweeting that the group “hate America” and calling on his supporters to donate either $17.76 or $20.24, referring to the year America became independent and the next US presidential election.