Call to topple Christopher Columbus statue from its Barcelona perch

[nextormento]

Rename the statue Statue of Exploration while removing Columbus' name and make the Holiday remain as Explorer's Day, celebrating curiosity and knowledge. Not the greed of a petty man.

The naming subversion is incredibly pointless: virtually nobody cares about the guy, but about a major event that changed the course of history. An event that brought every conceivable ill, as well as a profound change of perspective in the way of justice. Heck, the very concept of social justice traces back to Bartolomé de las Casas and the Valladolid debate around the very issue of brutality in the Americas, just a few decades after landing.

The holiday has little or nothing to do with the guy. In the same way that Christmas has little to do with Christianity.
For the record, the holiday here is called "Hispanidad", or more recently simply "Fiesta Nacional".
The fact that it commemorates the landing day should be indication enough that the guy is far removed from the festivity: what is commemorated is the venture of getting there, not the guy.

[JohnBrown1917]

Imbeciles, denying and reviling their own history. My grandfather, who served in the Spanish military for years, is rolling in his grave.

To be fair, those who want it removed are from Catalonia.
They don't consider to be part of their history.

[Kalis]

It makes a lot more sense for them to get rid of it for that reason, yes.


Just replace it with a statue of Cruijf lol

Replace it with one of Cristiano Ronaldo. There would be tapas flying everywhere.

[Direpenguin]

Replace it with one of Cristiano Ronaldo. There would be tapas flying everywhere.

Would the statue also inexplicably disappear for important events?

[Jacpierre]

That describes the vast majority of famous historical figures.

Nice generalization. Did Washington and Jefferson rape and murder people. Did they give them to their supporters as sex slaves?

[baskev]

You'll find that the racists are generally the ones demanding we keep things like statues of Columbus or the Confederate flag in the public eye.

If they want to put a new statue down ill support them all the way.
But there is so much shit going on in the world, hell even in spain. focus on that instead of spending money on tearing down a statue 90% of the people who walk by do not care about ???

And am i demanding to keep the statue??? Nope!!! its a general assumption of self righteous know it alls who get offened by the blue skye because of the poor smurfs. Who assume that being not for something means you are againts it.

If they blow it up, if keep it. All their choice. But the 2 points i am making are:
1. There are still people suffering from stuff people hate MR colombus. So instead of crying about some stone. Do something about the people still suffering.
2. The over cry baby stuff about stuff like this. Yes it happened, yes it was bad. We learned from it. And try our best to prevent stuff like that from happening. But if we remove everything we do not like from the past we are erasing not only the bad things people did. But also forgetting the victims. And comparing a flag witch is easy to remove vs a giant ass statue is not a comparison.


side not they should remove the statue of liberty to in that case. And the american flag to. Ask the native americans how they feel about that. And all the people american not deemed "good' enough for the country .

[Jacpierre]

They're still wrong about Columbus though. This just makes their motivations slightly less detestable.

What is it that you think you know about Columbus that the rest of us don't?

[Deleted]

lol. taking down the monument is one thing but I don't expect anyone to be for the "hey we were awful at this point in time" statue.

Nor the removal of a day off work, for that matter.

[Deleted]

I don't know, here we tore down most monuments made by our dictators. I mean, there's not a single statue of Lenin, Stalin or Ceausescu left in Romania. We tore them down. And if any are left, they're in a museum where one can find out who they were, not in public where everyone can look up to them.

True, most post-Soviet bloc countries did just that. However, this was done right after liberation, as a way to symbolize the end of Soviet oppression. The statue in question is of Columbus, who's been dead and buried for 500 years and it stands in Barcelona (Columbus didn't conquer Barcelona, did he now).

[Varitok]

If they don't want it they can send it to my house, it looks amazing.

[Sky High]

Nor the removal of a day off work, for that matter.

how is it YOU guys get that day off?

[Cheze]

Nice generalization. Did Washington and Jefferson rape and murder people. Did they give them to their supporters as sex slaves?

jefferson may not be the example you are looking for, here

[The One Percent]

An incompetent dickhead?

Exactly 10chars

[Moggie]

There are so many memorial to the dude all over the place in Spain, that taking one statue down isn't going to exactly do anything. The Spaniards are generally very proud of him and various other figures. They'd be hard pressed to change that mindset without a huge public uproar. Have been to Barcelona, walked that damn La Rambla multiple times more than I ever care to and still could care less about it. Regardless of what he was or did, he's still an important figure celebrated throughout the world. Trying to get rid of any traces of something doesn't change one thing.

[Kronik85]

Nice generalization. Did Washington and Jefferson rape and murder people. Did they give them to their supporters as sex slaves?

From my exceptionally limited knowledge of Jefferson he liked black booty, considering the whole slavery thing it's safe to say Sally Hemings would have had little choice in the matter lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, well, I stand corrected in that regard then. I lumped them in with the legions of the white guilt crowd that parrot the same drivel. If they're just sticking their thumb in the eye of the Spaniards because of a local cultural conflict, far be it from me to discourage them. They're still wrong about Columbus though. This just makes their motivations slightly less detestable.

Yeah fair play man. Not sure why you're sticking up for old Chris but that's up to you. Great men aren't always good men and if anything I'm in favour of keeping these sort of monuments as testament to that but if this motion gets the backing of the people of Barcelona to be taken down then that's their business.

[purebalance]

It's funny how all of these people in the OP's article want to condemn the slave traders and yet don't want to hold the people in Africa that sold them the slaves accountable. The supposed "hunting parties" that got slaves were few and far between, but rather more prisoners of war type slaves were purchased or even citizens from Africans. So hey let's demonize them too. Oh wait no it's too easy to demonize the white man.

[Jacpierre]

jefferson may not be the example you are looking for, here

Did not rape or murder anyone, so, yea I think I'm good. I'm sure your knowledge of history is beyond reproach though.

[Kalis]

It's funny how all of these people in the OP's article want to condemn the slave traders and yet don't want to hold the people in Africa that sold them the slaves accountable. The supposed "hunting parties" that got slaves were few and far between, but rather more prisoners of war type slaves were purchased or even citizens from Africans. So hey let's demonize them too. Oh wait no it's too easy to demonize the white man.

There probably aren't that many statues in Barcelona of Africans who sold slaves for them to condemn and demand to be removed.

[Cheze]

Did not rape or murder anyone, so, yea I think I'm good. I'm sure your knowledge of history is beyond reproach though.

honestly when I saw your initial comment I thought you might be baiting, but I guess not?

it's quite well known that jefferson liked to get busy with his slaves, and given that they were y'know, slaves, their consent cannot really be assumed

[Jacpierre]

From my exceptionally limited knowledge of Jefferson he liked black booty, considering the whole slavery thing it's safe to say Sally Hemings would have had little choice in the matter lol.

Yea, so you don't know anything. Thanks for proving my point. You think one man who may of had an affair with a slave must have raped her, even though there is ample evidence to show he detested slavery, treated them well (all things considered), etc etc, and another man who documented raping, torturing, mutilating, and murdering indigenous peoples who were peaceful and helpful towards him and his crew.

These things are CLEARLY the same.