Following the Vandalism of the Columbus Statue... U.S. Arts and Sports Communities Also Remove Symbols of Racial Discrimination

A Columbus statue with its head cut off. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Min Jun-young] As protests against racial discrimination spread across the United States, symbols associated with racism are being removed.

Recently, statues of Christopher Columbus, who discovered the New World, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, have been vandalized one after another.

According to U.S. media outlets The Washington Post (WP) and The New York Times (NYT) on the 10th (local time), the neck of the Columbus statue erected in 1979 in Boston, Massachusetts, was found damaged after being attacked by someone on the 9th.

The day before, in Richmond, Virginia, protesters advocating for Native American indigenous rights pulled down a Columbus statue and threw it into a nearby lake.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh stated, "The Columbus statue has been repeatedly attacked. Considering the current situation, we will take time to reassess the historical significance of the Columbus statue," adding, "We will discuss whether to remove and restore the statue."

Columbus statue abandoned in the lake of Richmond downtown park. Photo by Yonhap News

The statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, is also being vandalized.

On Grand Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, protesters tied ropes around the legs of the Davis statue and toppled it.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced, "We will no longer propagate a flawed history," and declared the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, but a court issued a temporary order to halt the removal.

Additionally, the movie Gone with the Wind has disappeared from video streaming service sites.

On the 9th, the U.S. streaming service HBO Max removed Gone with the Wind from its content library.

According to CNBC, an HBO Max spokesperson explained the reason for the removal, stating, "Gone with the Wind is a product of its time and unfortunately depicts ethnic and racial prejudices that were common in American society at that time," adding, "Because these racist depictions were wrong then and remain wrong today, we felt it would be irresponsible to keep the film in our content library without explanation."

The Confederate flag, regarded as a symbol of racial discrimination in the U.S., is also being phased out after 150 years.

According to the Associated Press (AP), on the 10th, NASCAR, the largest automobile racing organization in the U.S., announced it will remove the Confederate flag from all events.

The Confederate flag was used by the Confederate States, which supported slavery during the American Civil War in 1861.

This announcement came just two days after Bubba Wallace, NASCAR's only Black driver, publicly called for a ban on the use of the Confederate flag.

In the pop music industry, the term "urban music," which broadly refers to Black music, will no longer be used.

The Recording Academy, which hosts the Grammy Awards, announced on the 10th that the "Best Urban Contemporary Album" category will be renamed "Best Progressive R&B Album."

The terms "urban" or "urban contemporary" have commonly been used in the pop music industry to collectively describe Black music genres such as R&B, hip-hop, and soul.

It is known that the term was first used by a New York radio DJ in the 1970s and then spread throughout the pop music scene.

Famous record label Republic Records also announced on Instagram on the 5th that "from now on, the word 'urban' will be discarded as a modifier for categories, personnel, music genres, and so on."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.