Via the Washington Examiner “More than 100 professors call for the removal of NYC statues in open letter to Bill de Blasio”:

The letter begins, “As scholars of American art, cultural history and social analysis, we are writing to urge that the Commission recommend the removal of several monuments from public view in New York City. They have long been highlighted as objects of popular resentment among communities of color and anti-racist scholars, artists, and movements.”

According to the letter, the statue of Roosevelt is offensive because he is shown riding on horseback, while two individuals who appear to be African American and Native American are following him on foot. The statue was built in front of the American Museum of Natural History and was designed to pay tribute to Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts as a champion of U.S. land and wildlife conservation. The individuals who signed the letter also claim that the museum served as “center of the American eugenics movement in the early years of the twentieth century.”

The second monument that the professors find offensive is the statue of Christopher Columbus, which stands in the middle of Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Even though the statue exists as a monument to Italian-American heritage, the letter’s signatories claim “Italian-Americans cannot be allowed to override his key role in the historical genocide of Indigenous peoples of the Americas.”