Columbus discovers Johnston

"You are venerating a man who sold little girls into sex slavery..."

I left five minutes into the dedication ceremony for the Christopher Columbus statue in Johnston. I had seen enough.

I was there in June 2020 when the statue was removed from Providence's Elmwood neighborhood following a recommendation from the Special Committee for Commemorative Works.

The removal of the statue followed years of it being a target of red paint, splashed by people opposed to the public veneration of a genocidal colonizer like Columbus. Protecting the statue from occasionally being symbolically slathered in the blood of Columbus's many victims was too costly for Providence. To what end was the City of Providence expending resources to protect this statue? Why should the city continue celebrating a man whose whitewashed legend obscured many crimes, including mutilation, slavery, murder, genocide, rape, and torture?

The statue languished in storage until it was purchased by Joseph Paolino, Jr., a real estate developer and former Mayor of Providence. Paolino arranged to have the statue donated to Johnston, where Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. installed it on a small island, protected by a fence and security cameras in Johnston Memorial Park.

At least 400 people crowded around the statue to hear from a list of local politicians on the merits of installing the statue in the park. All the local television news crews were there. The Master of Ceremonies for the event was Gene Valicenti, a right-wing radio and television shock jock with a special distaste for people experiencing homelessness.

Gene Valicenti, right

As I stepped onto the island I was handed an oversized reprint of an oped by Rhode Island Historian Laureate Patrick Conley, who argued that judging Columbus by today's standards is a false standard. You might agree with this, you might not, but we don't have to look hard to find a man, a contemporary of Columbus, who understood that Columbus committed terrible crimes.

Bartolomé de las Casos started much like Columbus, but after witnessing the violence committed against the indigenous peoples of the Americas, he had a change of heart. "[H]e gave up his land, freed his slaves, became a priest, and spent to rest of his life fighting against the brutal colonization of the New World."

Weird that we don't celebrate Bartolomé Day.

Just before the dedication of the Columbus statue in Johnston got underway, two people showed up to protest. Joseph Gizzarelli and a young woman held signs that said, "No Private Statue on Public Land, No Tax $ [to] Protect Your Rapist" and "Murder, Genocide, Is This Italian Pride?"

The statue was unveiled, in that the blue plastic protective sheet it was wrapped in was removed, to cheers from the crowd.

"We're here to continue the great tradition of Italians moving up from Providence to Johnston," quipped Valicenti to laughs. "That's been going on a long time."

"We're here, as you know, to dedicate this statue, symbolic of the gentleman navigator credited with the 15th century greatest discovery of the New World," said Valicenti, before undercutting this ahistorical statement with some annoying facts. "Occupied by indigenous people for centuries before that, and likely discovered by Lief Erickson and the Vikings before Columbus."

What exactly did Columbus "discover?"

"We are not here to settle any historical debate," continued Valicenti, brushing past my unstated question. "We are not here to draw a line in the sand or anything like that. We are simply here to enjoy a statue that's considered a work of art [and] a man and his accomplishments that are held in high regard, particularly by Italian Americans. And that's why all of you are here. Welcome to all of you."

Noting the protesters at the edge of the crowd, Valicenti went off script.

"And by the way, protest is a great tradition in America, and we welcome our protesters too. There's nobody here chasing you out. You're here and all voices must be heard."

It's ironic that even as Valicenti was saying these words, Johnston Police Officers were removing the protesters, sending them back across the bridge.

That was enough for me. I had to leave.

I caught up with the protesters, surrounded by police officers,

"You are venerating a man who sold little girls into sex slavery," yelled Gizzarelli, adding that since his arrival, he had been assaulted three times.

"Your people just invaded Israel!" said a man to Gizzarelli as I headed to my car. Another man said to Gizarelli, "Watch your fucking language! There are kids here you piece of shit!"

Later, I watched a video on Channel 12 of a man screaming, "I'm proud of what white people have accomplished. I'm proud that these white men are here to protect you," he added, pointing to the police officers. He didn’t mention that the police officers were protecting Gizzarelli from him.

There was no more pretense, no more hiding it. Dedicating the statue had little to do with understanding history, or celebrating the accomplishments of Italian Americans. It was about white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and racism.

"I'm proud that we've conquered this land for white men," continued the man on the Channel 12 video. "I'm proud [of slavery]. Slavery has been everywhere. You are just uneducated. Now get out of here! Nobody wants you, communist scum!”

Just as I was about to publish I learned that a white supremacist organization had dropped flyers in baggies, weighted with rocks, in and around Johnston. Perhaps after watching Channel 12’s coverage of the Columbus unveiling, they saw an opportunity to evangelize.

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