FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 25, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
protest
Hundreds protest for the removal of Christopher
Columbus statue on Astoria Boulevard
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
More than a hundred people marched
toward Astoria Boulevard on June 17 to
denounce the Christopher Columbus statue
as a “symbol of genocide” and demand
for it to be removed. Th e protest, organized
by Queens-based group Justice for
George Queens, began at Astoria Park’s
War Memorial.
Th e organizers hoped to show solidarity
with Black and Indigenous people who’ve
struggled with colonialism for centuries,
as well as to bring attention to Black trans
lives lost to hate and police brutality.
Trasonia Abbott, one of the protest’s
leaders, began with a meditation followed
by a land acknowledgement in support
of Black lives in Lenapehoking (the traditional
homeland of the Lenape people,
which includes New York City) written
by writer and photographer Joe Whittle.
“Most of the Lenapeyok and the main
political and cultural body of the tribe
ended up in Oklahoma aft er repeated
forced removals and relocations spanning
over 50 years of exodus and leading halfway
across the continent,” the statement
read. “It is this storied, shared history of
oppression and solidarity, and our love for
all of our fellow Indigenous peoples from
across the globe, that drives us to stand up
for our Black relatives today who face the
same ongoing colonial violence that we do
as Indigenous ‘Americans.’”
Later in the demonstration, two artists
who identify as Muisca, Indigenous people
of Colombia, read a poem in Spanish
about the intersection of statues that celebrate
colonialism and the systemic racism
that persists within the United States’
systems.
Manuela Agudelo, an organizer with
Justice for George Queens, told QNS
they wanted to bring closer to home the
renewed conversations happening across
the nation and world to remove statues
of historical fi gures who contributed to
the oppression and violence of Black and
Indigenous people.
“We saw that around the world and
other nations that there were a lot of
people denouncing these bigoted statues,
and we felt strongly that this aff ected
our community in Queens,” Agudelo said.
“Queens is one of the most diverse places
in the world — we should be respecting
people who built this country.”
During the fi rst half of the protest,
another organizer focused on Black trans
lives by reading the names of individuals
lost between 2015 and 2020, as a violinist
played a somber melody. It took well over
four minutes for all the names to be read.
Th ere have been at least 15 transgender
or gender non-conforming people fatally
killed this year, according to Human
Rights Campaign. Some of the most recent
high-profi le cases include Tony McDade,
a Black trans-masculine person, killed
by Tallahassee police, and Dominique
“Rem’mie” Fells, a Black transgender
woman found dead in Philadelphia.
One of the organizers read “A Land
Acknowledgement in Support of Black
Lives” about the Lenapehoking and their
stolen land, written by Joe Whittle. another
organizer read the names of the Black
Trans lives taken by police since 2015. It
took well over four minutes.
Th e organizer also spoke about LGBTQ
pioneer, Masha P. Johnson, a Black
trans woman known as one of the most
important fi gures in the Stonewall Riots
in Manhattan, which served as a catalyst
for the gay rights movement in the nation
and is now recognized as Pride month
in June.
“So when you’re putting on your rainbow
colored T-shirts, dancing to your
favorite songs at a gay bar and throwing
on your body glitter for a Pride parade,
know that none of that would be possible
without a Black trans woman placing
her life on the line,” the organizer said,
as the crowd cheered. “When Black trans
women are being killed at alarming rates
and beaten in the streets, we must protect
and value them because that’s exactly what
they did and continue to do for the entire
LGBTQ+ community all over the world.”
Another organizer spoke about how the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 aff orded so many
other rights for immigrants and minority
communities, due to that “very tight bill”
that gave Black people “some semblance
of rights.”
Th e organizer implored others to vote
and “bother” their representatives in the
local, city and state legislature. Th e organizer
also acknowledged Senator Michael
Gianaris for attending the demonstration.
Th e protest — a well-organized event
with volunteers handing out water bottles,
masks and snacks — then transitioned
into a march toward Astoria
Boulevard. More than a hundred people
marched down Shore Boulevard then
Hoyt Avenue, chanting “When Native
interchanged with Black and trans lives
are under attack, what do we do? Stand
up, fi ght back!” marching down Hoyt
Avenue, chanting “how do you spell racist?
NYPD. how do you spell murderers?
NYPD” so far, the police have stayed away
from the demonstrators, blocking traffi c.
Police maintained distance from the
demonstrators throughout the march
and protest, blocking off traffi c as they
marched down the highway and onto
Astoria Boulevard by the N and W
train where the statue of Christopher
Columbus is placed.
While there, several organizers and
community members spoke about
Columbus’ legacy in the Indigenous community.
“For many years a lot of people
here in America an throughout the world
thought this man was a cool guy, but now
with further education and … marches
like these, we know the real truth,” said
Sanakori Taíno Sagrado, who identifi ed
as being of Taíno descent of Boriken, the
Taíno (Indigenous) name for Puerto Rico.
Sagrado then asked where the markers
Photo by Dean Moses
and new monument honoring Indigenous
people are, noting Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
“broken” promise to add those throughout
the city in response to calls to remove
Columbus monuments back in 2018.
Others talked about the larger movement
to defund and ultimately abolish
the police, address systemic racism and
unlearn the ideals that prevent actual
change from taking place.
“It shouldn’t be disheartening because
the signs to all this were in front of us
the whole time,” said Joseph Martinez,
a Queens-based member of Warriors in
the Garden, a collective of activists dedicated
to nonviolent protest, as he pointed
to the Columbus statue. “Th e system
has not failed us. You know why? Because
the system was never designed for us in
the fi rst place.” Aft er a few more speakers,
the demonstrators sand and danced
along to Bill Withers’ uplift ing anthem,
“Lean On Me.”
Before ending the demonstration at
about 8:30 p.m., the organizers called
attention to a petition for the removal
of the Columbus statue, addressed to de
Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. When
asked about the calls to remove Columbus
statues last week, Cuomo and de Blasio
defended the statues as representative of
the Italian-American legacy.
Th is is not the fi rst call to remove the
Columbus statue at Astoria Boulevard.
In 2017, DNA Info reported of a instance
in which the statue was tagged with the
words “Don’t Honor Genocide. Take It
Down.”
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