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MonicaPVD t1_j7zmgf2 wrote

Reply to comment by Prota_Gonist in Former Providence mayor has interest in purchasing Columbus statue by Previous_Floor

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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