Plenty of people have piped up about their belief that removing Confederate monuments and other such statues will cause the U.S. to become woefully ignorant of history. But NYC mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis has already been operating on a dearth of accurate information about our nation’s founding. After a few enraged Baltimoreans took a sledge hammer to a statue of Christopher Columbus last night, she tweeted, “Even Christopher Columbus, the founder of our nation, is under attack.”
Twitter was helpfully eager to correct her. Some expressed surprise that Columbus founded our country, rather than other well-known figures.
I thought Jesus was the founder of our nation. pic.twitter.com/9IO9yacGc2
— Trump's Feet (@TrumpFeet) August 23, 2017
I think Leif Erikson would have something to say about that as well.
— Roscoe (@BrentRossum) August 23, 2017
There was plenty of tongue in cheek sarcasm to go around.
https://twitter.com/ABigDisgrace/status/900400709186859009
Took Columbus from 1492 to 1776 to found our nation, but by gosh he did it.
— Rob Foran🚴 (@Aunt_Bike) August 23, 2017
Hate to dispel a popular misconception, but Christopher Columbus was not the quarterback the last time the Cleveland Browns won the title.
— Jon Perr (@Perrspectives) August 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/LeftofLondon/status/900400122881753089
Others focused on the historic details that tend to get left out of the standard primary school text book.
Disgusting. Columbus said the indigenous people of the Caribbean would "make good slaves". That's who he was. https://t.co/yTi1NFpJhF
— Elana Levin (@Elana_Brooklyn) August 23, 2017
I had no idea that the United States was founded in 1492 on Hispañola.
— Stephanie Helms (@sidhra) August 23, 2017
He's been under attack for decades because he was a syphilis-addled, genocidal Italian conquistador who didn't discover a damn thing.
— Bill Brennan 🍀 🎸 🎥 📚 (@williamcbrennan) August 23, 2017
The widespread removal of Confederate monuments, which initially gained traction this spring, has accelerated since the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville. Many people are advocating that the statues belong in museums. It’s a reminder that enthusiasm for history isn’t dead, and that statues can indeed continue to educate Americans, even NYC mayoral candidates.
(Via Baltimore Sun)