By Drew
I’m by no means perfect. If any of my ex’s are reading this I guarantee they just audibly said, out loud, “GODDAMN RIGHT YOU AINT!” and they would not only be not wrong, but also well within their rights to further insult me with very true statements.
Its funny how things change. Time is tricky….one minute you’re in high school using “Ya ma is a Haitian” as an insult, the next minute you’re marrying the love of your life….who is Haitian….who just saw your Facebook memories from 2010 and now its awkward.
Never forget how far we’ve come and how much growth we’ve had. What was ignored and tolerated then may not be so tolerated and accepted now. That’s life. In the 60’s you could hit your wife in the head with a mop handle and the police would ask HER why she was back talking. It was horrendously wrong then as it is now. Difference is, then it was kinda/maybe frowned upon.
Now? lol…..not the same laws and NOT the same women, beloved.
So, even tho I know this will piss off a few portions of society, I think it’s time we address why that Christopher Columbus statue needs to come down.
If we’re being honest, Christopher Columbus, or “CC” as I like to call him (something about “CC” feels less rapey and genocidey and more Starbucks datey….no?)…CC was a great guy. No, seriously…..the average Bahamian woman would fuck with him heavy if he was a real person and liked unraped 3rd world vagina.
Think about it: He owned boats, which scientifically has been proven to make Bahamian women’s panties juicy. He was super into traveling and adventures. He was cool with royalty and all the big celebs and we know how some of y’all like clout and opulence. Clearly he wasn’t racist as he had TONS of black “friends”….
If we’re being honest he was probably a great guy and super fun at parties with all the stories he could tell. Don’t get it twisted: Reading back, that man would be considered an asshole now, in modern times. But in those days none of what I said above was really abnormal. It’s just what happened.
That’s probably how the conversations went.
When you’re committing genocides and gutting whole societies flawlessly and creating generational wealth on the backs of an entire race, why exactly would you even imagine stopping? If it was the reverse niggas would have been flossing with their white British slaves.
I can see it now….
Was it wrong, horrendous, alarming, sick, nasty, unconscionable, inhumane and a violation of every human fucking right? Yes.
Did it leave lasting scars for generations after slavery? Yes.
Was it illegal to do those things at that time, nay….was it even FROWNED upon at that time? ….No.
So why would he NOT do it? Any one of us if given the opportunity (also being white SUPER helped) and had the mindset of that time would have hopped on that chance.
So the questions I’m seeing are:
“Why tear it down now after all this time? It’s not hurting anyone!”
“What does it matter? Who cares? Y’all just tryna be like America!”
“What about history?”
I love that last argument cause people act like once you destroy an exalted image of a objectively bad person that their name is magically erased from the history books. That’s not how “history” and “books” work, beloved.
To be quite blunt: Considering y’all had us praying to a white Jesus all our lives the LEAST you can do is take down the statue of a white devil.
And I know someone is gonna make the argument, “Why does race ALWAYS have to come into these conversations? Leave race out of it!”
To that I say…..exhibit A….
Funny how no one sees color until they try and make a beloved white character not white. Certain white people be like…
Me: “Ok, so you don’t mind if they made Superman black then?”
Them….
So let’s not play the “color doesn’t matter” game.
It matters.
I’m willing to make the argument that the reason WHY a lot of these niggas out here are house niggas (looking at you politicians) is BECAUSE of the white Jesus/White Savior complex. I never learned about the atrocities and the heinous acts CC committed. The man was a literal monster. The sad part is our politicians KNOW what this nigga did and yet, when a petition was signed by thousands of Bahamians to bring down the statue, we were ignored.
Now, to be fair, we may have had bigger fish to fry….shit, we ALWAYS have bigger fish to fry. But how hard is it to just….just be like….
Having that CC statue up is insulting to an island that is predominantly black. The only statue MORE insulting is that goddamn chicken in the middle of the highway. Salute to the welder that made it and it’s an amazing feat but, beloved…..a chicken?
Having a CC statue, in front of our government house no less, is like Bahamians building a statue of Renward Wells in front of PMH.
And that’s really what it is isn’t it?
We really can’t see racism.
We can feel it.
We can sense it.
We can think we hear it but no one really SAYS they’re racist because there’s always some level of deniability. Y’all know what I mean.
Sure people may act racist or use racist dog whistles but, anytime you ask, they almost ALWAYS have a “black friend” and that nigga almost always has this shape up….
But, CC? We have receipts on this nigga. Like….documentaries and books and scribes and shit tell tales of how awful this man was. Irony of it is they probably wrote that shit thinking they were biggin this nigga up like it was a motivational rap song.
So the question is should this man’s deeds be acknowledged?
My answer is yes.
But should this man be celebrated? Fuck no.
Get the nuance?
It’s like this whole Kanye debacle we seem to be in. To be clear: Kanye supported Trump, said slavery was a choice, married AND impregnanted a Kardashian and made niggas spend $2,000 for these shits….
But I’m supposed to not think “My Dark Twisted Fantasy” wasn’t a classic?
College Dropout is now garbage?
Understand, until he comes back to the light its fuck Kanye forever but I’m not turning my back on the genius of his music. CC was super good at sailing and never forget….SLAVERY WAS LEGAL. He technically did nothing wrong outside of being a gigantic piece of dog shit. The higher ups at that time didn’t give a shit.
But he was super good at ocean stuff. I can acknowledge the man’s work while simultaneously despising his choices/acts…..and CC should absolutely be despised.
I think we all know the story of the young man taking a sledgehammer to the Columbus statue. I’m clearly not writing this off air, tho, to be clear, I wrote about this last year and y’all ignored my ass the way Minnis ignored y’all petition to bring the statue down.
Now, here we are again…..and thanks be to God that young man put Brave “A New Day” Davis in a bind because you either repair it or bring it down. If he’s reading the room (or my timeline) you bring it down. But you’ll be surprised how many people may not want that.
So I have a compromise: Repair the statue…..but repair it at its new home…..a museum dedicated to the story of how we got here, who brought us here, and the FULL truth and scope of what happened. Put a face and body to the Italian piece of shit and surround him with the statues of the slaves, the fallen, the Lucayans, the murdered, the diseased. Show the boats they brought us in. Tell the story of the horror. Because to leave him in front of government house like some hero on a pedestal is wrong. To celebrate him is wrong.
And, to be clear, what that man did by illegally taking a sledge hammer, taking an arm and a leg from that statue, was also wrong.
But boy did it feel and look right.
Brave, you just got in and I know you’re tryna fix shit….but this is shit that needs fixing. Move the statue somewhere else and tell the full story so our kids and our kid’s kids can be more knowledgeable than some of us that fear change due to our ignorance of history and facts.
After that young man is freed from whatever institution they have him in, we need to thank him for forcing the hands of our leaders, ALL OF THEM, from dragging their feet with this easily resolved thing.
The same young man during his legendary moment yelled out he was the Archangel Michael coming to save The Bahamas.
It reminded me of the Archangel Michael prayer. I won’t bore you with the whole thing, but what that young man did and represented last week reminded me of one part in particular that reads,
“…and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God thrust Satan down to hell
and with him those other wicked spirits
who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.
Amen.”
That young man probably isn’t the Archangel Michael: But he did God’s work that day……and let the church say……!
Be safe tho
