What was disconcerting to me about realizing that the man who will, most likely until the end of time; be revered among people as a hero for “discovering America” and who, as Todorov describes, “it is with him that our genealogy begins, insofar as the word beginning has a meaning” (5) is cruel, and who saw America as a land full of, not people, but opportunities, heathens, to Catholicize. Columbus is not the popularized image that elementary school children are trained, year after year, among Thanksgiving festivities and painted hand turkeys, to find valiant. Beyond my conscious decision to boycott Columbus Day from now on, what I find even harder to believe is that fifty percent of modern Native Americans believe that Columbus “discovered America.” Columbus’s mode of conquest, to deny the alterity of these Native peoples is the root of racism and any kind of prejudice. By defining other people what they lack, instead of what they are, is the fundamental fallacy of humankind. It only makes sense that one of the most horrible genocides of a people began with this “finalist strategy.” As soon as Columbus’s ships brushed against the shores of Native America, the land and the people were defined solely by what they lacked. The tale of the discovery of America, like the histories of other genocides in the past, must continually be reassessed, corrected, and these deep scars on a people, a culture, must never be forgotten. Mankind must be conscious and never lose sight of these mistakes so that they will not be repeated. The story of the discovery of America must be retold, with a new beginning, not one of European arrival.
What was disconcerting to me about realizing that the man who will, most likely until the end of time; be revered among people as a hero for “discovering America” and who, as Todorov describes, “it is with him that our genealogy begins, insofar as the word beginning has a meaning” (5) is cruel, and who saw America as a land full of, not people, but opportunities, heathens, to Catholicize. Columbus is not the popularized image that elementary school children are trained, year after year, among Thanksgiving festivities and painted hand turkeys, to find valiant. Beyond my conscious decision to boycott Columbus Day from now on, what I find even harder to believe is that fifty percent of modern Native Americans believe that Columbus “discovered America.”
ReplyDeleteColumbus’s mode of conquest, to deny the alterity of these Native peoples is the root of racism and any kind of prejudice. By defining other people what they lack, instead of what they are, is the fundamental fallacy of humankind. It only makes sense that one of the most horrible genocides of a people began with this “finalist strategy.” As soon as Columbus’s ships brushed against the shores of Native America, the land and the people were defined solely by what they lacked. The tale of the discovery of America, like the histories of other genocides in the past, must continually be reassessed, corrected, and these deep scars on a people, a culture, must never be forgotten. Mankind must be conscious and never lose sight of these mistakes so that they will not be repeated. The story of the discovery of America must be retold, with a new beginning, not one of European arrival.