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total_life_forever t1_j7x42j3 wrote

I prefer the annual tradition of Columbus' statue being publicly vandalized and defiled.

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Brotendo88 t1_j7yivf8 wrote

Being the number one scumbag in Rhode Island is seemingly an incredibly difficult venture yet Paolino always manages to anoint himself with the crown lol.

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On-Balance t1_j7xvvq1 wrote

will he shove it up his ass?

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j7wvmsx wrote

We've got a ton of scrap yards who'd probably pay better.

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ryanfingawesome t1_j7wshxv wrote

nah, let’s keep that garbage out of public view. do we really need to remember a guy that not only didn’t find america but then was so shitty to the people he did find that the queen that paid for his trip cut her ties?

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bdpsych t1_j7x7a37 wrote

I wouldn't mind having the statue in my apt. It's a sweet statue. You could put different hats on it.

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Klutzy_Background_56 t1_j7xsf9c wrote

Melt it down. Sell the bronze scraps.

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WickedDog310 t1_j7zi5a6 wrote

Kinda wanna see the steel yard get it and watch their classes tear it apart and mold it into something new. PVD should donate it to the BIPOC class they run.

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Prota_Gonist t1_j7x52w6 wrote

Well, I'll give Paolino credit, recharacterizing Columbus as a figure of Italian-American pride is cunning.

That framing will allow for the downplaying of complaints from minoritized groups who don't consider Columbus to be aspirational by invoking the historically minoritized status of Italians. The goal, it seems, is to recast Columbus not as a national hero but rather as an ethnically-specific one.

It's all just sleight of hand, though. The statue was taken out of public display for a reason, and it had nothing to do with anti-Italian sentiment.

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MonicaPVD t1_j7zmgf2 wrote

He didn't come up with this idea. The Italian American Anti Defamation League started a national Columbus campaign nearly a hundred years ago. Back then, Italians weren't considered white and were discriminated against across the nation. Someone decided that pitching Columbus as a white explorer who discovered these lands would help bigots embrace Italians. It kind of worked. But that was then and this is now.

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Prota_Gonist t1_j7zogrn wrote

I feel like it's being lost in the conversation that no modern American has an issue with Columbus because he was Italian.

The negative sentiment exists because Columbus was, charitably, a somewhat careless credit-stealer who failed upward and ended up way out of his depth, whose major claim to fame was accomplished by someone else 500 years prior.

Less charitably, he was a ruthless mercenary colonizer blinded by the promise of wealth whose exploration directly led to hundreds of years of oppression and subjugation that some have termed a genocide.

The recasting of Columbus as an Italian Hero doesn't jive with a modern understanding of his role in America's history.

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MonicaPVD t1_j80g3bw wrote

No one is recasting him as a hero today. That was done by Italian Americans a lifetime ago and it was an effective strategy. Modern Americans have a much broader understanding of history and humanity than was commonly available back then. That was then, this is now.

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Noofthab t1_j7y9s59 wrote

There is some interesting scholarship that points to Columbus being Portuguese.

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Throwaway1231200001 t1_j7zwytp wrote

Second I hear "former mayor buys" you automatically know it's gonna be Paulino.

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leavingthecold t1_j8120uv wrote

I've never understood why this was such a big deal.

I mean you have monuments of President's that had a hand in the genocide of the native indigenous people down to the current %2.

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ryanfingawesome t1_j81eycd wrote

yeah and we would be cool with getting rid of those too. fuck andrew jackson.

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pmk0286 t1_j81g4h5 wrote

Because people who type away on IPhones made in Chinese slave labor factories while wearing shoes manufactured by Indian children get offended by old Bronze Statues of dead white guys/Ginzos

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