Jewish conservative Ben Shapiro is standing behind the publication of a Columbus Day video on his website the Daily Wire that depicted Native Americans as simple-minded cannibals — despite criticism that the clip was racist.
—@benshapiro tells me he’s on vacation/didn’t green light @realDailyWire’s Columbus Day vid, but says it’s satire & should be judged as such pic.twitter.com/LloK7nyenH— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 9, 2017
The website Salon decried the short animation as “boundlessly racist.”
The video “spins off of the increasingly popular idea” in conservative circles, Salon wrote, that Christopher Columbus should be defended from “those who actually acknowledge his written history.” In the video, Native Americans gawk in awe at the sight of Columbus eating with a knife and a fork.
In honor of Indigenous People’s Day, formerly known as #ColumbusDay: pic.twitter.com/Z9ver8f4nN— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 9, 2017
Shapiro said that he had been on vacation and didn’t approve of the video but said that it was “obvious to me that it’s satire and must be evaluated by those standards.”
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Sam Kestenbaum
Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.
Jewish Conservative Ben Shapiro Defends ‘Boundlessly Racist’ Columbus Day Video