A response to the CCAC; July 28, 2021
This is an open response to the Mayor’s Columbus Circle Action Committee Report, a document that concludes that the Christopher Columbus Monument in Syracuse needs to be modified and/or removed from Columbus Circle to satisfy claims levied against him five Centuries ago.
This report is a tendentious assembly of tortured rationalizations with one factual statement:
“What is often at play during divisive conversations about Columbus are intense disagreements over facts.”
The report however is thick with exaggerated rhetoric and hyperbole:
“The Committee spent considerable time hearing first-person accounts [emphasis: mine] of the pain associated with Columbus”; (a man who died in 1506, really?)
The premise is Christopher Columbus, a Genoa born explorer whose voyages in search of a water route to the Far East is personally to blame for everything that followed his “discovery” of the Americas in 1492. Further, that transgression assigned only to him, requires a 21st century “re-imagination” of our public square.
Their Report opens with a conclusion that is not supported by findings anywhere within its 15 pages; it is an unsubstantiated construct supporting a predetermined political outcome:
“The legacy of Christopher Columbus has connections to the histories of many different peoples in Central New York. The monument at Columbus Circle has become a lightning rod for present-day movements for justice and an end to oppression for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, [emphasis, mine] while also serving as a point of pride for many Italian-Americans whose families first settled here in the late 1800s.”
Designating the Christopher Columbus monument “a lightning rod for present day movements…” is a clear acknowledgement that this is a political cudgel, fabricated to scapegoat Columbus over their dissatisfaction with America writ large.
Should Syracuse change or remove the Columbus Monument from Columbus Circle? It is hard to imagine reaching that conclusion when the CCAC’s document confirms their own failure to reach consensus:
“In the time that we were given to accomplish this task we, as a group, were not able to untangle the competing opinions and interpretations of facts.”
It is beyond comprehension that the CCAC could acknowledge their inability to “untangle…the facts” yet continue toward a series of recommendations that would change this Monument in any way including its complete removalfrom the Circle – except when viewed as a pure political act.
The CCAC attributes all negative impacts from the European Colonization of America at Christopher Columbus’ feet;
“Whether these actions were intended or not, Columbus’ arrival opened the door to European colonization which led to devastating impacts for Native, Black and Brown People, and all people of color across the Americas.”
Remarkable assertion considering Columbus never set foot in North America at any time on any of his four voyages to the Caribbean. Some global context is needed for Columbus’ voyages to the “New World”. He was not alone. Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Núñez de Balboa, Ferdinand Magellan, Juan Sebastián Elcano, and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (more on de Aviles later) among others are credited for “The Age of Discovery”.
The simple point is that Christopher Columbus was one of many European explorers who ventured out in search of other worlds at the close of the 16th Century. European traders explored new lands to open new markets and the results of these “discoveries” have been profound. The European influence in the evolution of North, Central and South America was significant but to suggest that these men have done some unforgivable wrong by their voyages is simply nonsense. The unique and diverse cultures that have evolved in the Americas since the “Age of Discovery” can only be looked at pejoratively by people who seek to deconstruct the American experiment and reshape it to fit their own current political goals.
If the sins of European settlements in America are all attributable to Christopher Columbus, then the corollary must also be true. That he must be credited for the Polio vaccine, the electric light bulb, air conditioning, motorized flight, the moon landing, digital computers, telephones, skyscraper; passenger escalators and elevators, power tools, vulcanized rubber, and the Covid-19 vaccine – for starters. It too is equally absurd. Christopher Columbus cannot be credited for any of these things – nor should he be blamed for the imperfections that followed in the forming of a “more perfect Union” in 1776.
Amazingly, the CDC acknowledges “[Italian immigrants] were persecuted and were treated with suspicion and derision due to their darker skin color, accents, and form of worship. In 1891, a mass lynching of 11 Italians accused of killing New Orleans’ mayor occurred, seven of whom had already been acquitted.” If you read that quote soberly, you can see why they were so motivated to build a monument (with their own funds) in response to this atrocity. It took them decades to raise the money.
The Christopher Columbus Monument was never intended to be anything more than a celebration of Italian immigrants standing up to a society that wasn’t ready to fully accept them at the America table. It stood as a symbol of their determination and pursuit of the American Dream and it now stands as a symbol of achievement and confirmation that American Exceptionalism is what made this the greatest Country on earth. The current meme “Embrace Diversity – replace Columbus” confirms that retribution drives this politically motivated action – that to celebrate our different cultures’ we must erase the Italian one; to what gain?
The United States of America has the most diverse population, most opportunity, most freedom and the most prosperity for its citizens; that would not have happened but for the “explorers” like, but not exclusively Christopher Columbus. What is confusing is if America is such an awfully irredeemable racist place, why have millions of non-European (read: POC) migrants surge across our southern border seeking an opportunity for a better life in America? What do they know about America that the CCAC doesn’t?
Kevin Kane
