TW: rape, sexual violence, violence

Public veneration of a problematic historical figure like Christopher Columbus should not exist anywhere, especially in a town that claims to be “stigma free.”

Christopher Columbus didn't discover the Americas, he monetized them. One cannot “discover” land that already belonged to people for at least 15,000 years. These original people were indigenous, and they populated the land with hundreds of small nations and tribes before Columbus had ever arrived.

When Columbus met the Native Americans, he wrote in his diary, “They do not carry arms or know them....They should be good servants,” revealing that his motives were AVARICIOUS and RACIST. Soon, the Natives were forced into slavery, and punished with the loss of limbs or death if they didn’t comply. He also participated in sexual slavery; Columbus and his crewmen would violently rape Native American women. While using them for profit and stealing their land, Columbus and the Europeans brought the bubonic plague, chickenpox, cholera, malaria, measles, typhoid, & other illnesses to the natives. This decimated large populations of the indigenous people Columbus found living on the land he “discovered.”

The monument in West Orange incorrectly names Columbus as the “Discoverer of America” despite the land already being owned by Native Americans. In addition, he NEVER set foot on the land that is now the United States. He only saw the coasts of Central and South America. Therefore, in regards to both morality and basic truth, everything about Columbus’ voyages were WRONG. Any justification of Christopher Columbus’ behavior, including the brainless belief known as “Manifest Destiny,” is unacceptable.

Christopher Columbus’ deliberate eradication of Native Americans initiated the pattern of colonialism, white supremacy, violence, and xenophobia that the United States exhibits to this very day.

Christopher Columbus is not deserving of a monument. We should not be honoring the Native American Genocide that he is responsible for.

Sign this petition to support the REMOVAL of the Christopher Columbus monument in the valley of West Orange, NJ.