A statue of Christopher Columbus beheaded in Boston. The Genoese navigator, long presented as the “discoverer of America”, is now considered to be one of the figures of the First Nations genocide.
Photo : Reuters / BRIAN SNYDER
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The bronze statue of Teddy
Roosevelt, who has welcomed visitors to the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History for 80 years, shows the former president, who was governor of New York State before entering the White House, seated on a horse and overlooking a black man and an Aboriginal man walking alongside him.
What a monument has long been the subject of controversy due to its hierarchical composition
The museum, a famous tourist attraction in New York, located next to Central Park, said in a statement Sunday night.
Many of us find the depiction of African and Native American figures, and their positioning in this monument, to be racist.
, he added.
New York City responded positively to the museum’s request to remove this statue, which explicitly represents blacks and Native Americans as subjugated and racially inferior
, explained its mayor Bill de Blasio in a statement.
As the institution’s website recalls, Teddy Roosevelt was considered a progressive conservationist at the turn of the 20th century, but he also defended racist views.
One of his descendants, Theodore Roosevelt IV, explained support for this decision. The composition of the equestrian statue does not represent the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt. It’s time to take that statue off and move on
, he explained.
On the night of Sunday to Monday, the current Republican President Donald Trump, a fervent defender of Confederate monuments, criticized this decision which he described as ridicule
. Do not do it!
, he wrote in a tweet.
The tenant of the White House recently called for the arrest of the protesters who shot down a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike in Washington.
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