On the second Monday of every October, the United States observes a holiday that venerates the precursor to genocide. That Monday is today — Columbus Day. Initially, Columbus Day was pushed forward by Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans who sought to use Columbus as a shield to mitigate anti-Italian sentiments. Then, Italian-Americans adopted Columbus as a symbol of the achievements and contributions made by Italians to the United States. Later, Columbus was adopted as an idol for the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus. This push led to Columbus Day being officially recognized as a federal holiday in 1932. Nonetheless, we cannot simply ignore Columbus’ crimes for the sake of his “good.”
In the same vein as the University's veneration of Thomas Jefferson, our observance and laudation of Columbus and his holiday testifies to the majority culture's disregard for the values and experiences of various minority groups. When a person is chosen to be venerated, it seems society weighs the positives and negatives committed by the person. If we consider the positive to outweigh the negative, then we decide the person is worthy of being idolized. On the other hand, if negative feats outweigh positive feats, then that person is condemned and will not receive our approbation. In the case of Columbus, it seems our society has deemed his "discovery" of America to be much more important than the fact that he massacred and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Native Americans and Africans. This reverence for Columbus is reprehensible and should be expunged from our culture.
Unfortunately, some readers may be asking themselves which atrocities were committed by Columbus. These people are not alone. For many of us, our introduction to Columbus portrayed him as the intrepid traveler who "discovered" America. Well, as Bill Bigelow writes, the historical reality is that Columbus was not the first person to discover the Americas, but he was certainly the “first terrorist in the Americas.” Columbus enslaved many of the Tainos (an Arawak group) and, when faced with resistance, massacred them with the help of Spanish armies. As Kirkpatrick Sales details, Columbus' soldiers "mowed down dozens with point-blank volleys, loosed the dogs to rip open limbs and bellies, chased fleeing Indians into the bush to skewer them on sword and pike." Columbus did not stop here. In Africa, he continued his atrocities against humanity.
He was the father of the slave trade, bringing slaves to the Caribbean. In the pursuit of wealth, Columbus attempted to enslave many Native Americans. This attempt, however, was moderately successful. Thus, Columbus and by extension Spain decided to buy and force Africans into slavery and ship them to the Americas. This process began the infamous Atlantic slave trade, which connected Europe, Africa and the Americas. Many of the slaves abducted and bought by Columbus were forced into labor on sugar plantations, which Columbus and Spain used to amass wealth. These actions have often been likened to those of Adolf Hitler. In fact, the comparison has led historian David E. Stannard and many others to refer to the near extinguishment of Native Americans as the "American Holocaust." Though he was certainly not the only one responsible for the massacre of Native Americans and American slavery, Columbus was undoubtedly a pioneer of both.
This celebration of Columbus demonstrates another attempt to whitewash history. In recent months, public education systems have adopted even more delusive historical textbooks. The most recent example is a McGraw-Hill textbook whose revisionism went viral. In that case, a McGraw-Hill textbook euphemized the Atlantic slave trade as "[bringing] workers from Africa." This revisionism is exemplary of a common human tendency to expunge details that negatively portray something (e.g., a country) or someone (e.g., a historical or political figure) we idolize. Instead of celebrating Columbus, we should rename his holiday Indigenous People’s Day. This day could be used to recognize the culture, history and resilience of Native Americans: a people who have no other notable holiday of national recognition. Additionally, the holiday should serve as a reminder to future generations that much of the Western Hemisphere was not simply achieved by way of greatness. Rather, in Anglo-America, it came about at the cost of a nearly complete annihilation of an entire race of people and the enslavement of another. It is necessary to detail history not only from the standpoint of winners but also that of those conquered by them.
Renaming Columbus Day is of course small relative to alleviating the effects (e.g., disparities in poverty, health care, police brutality, education, etc.) of the injustices committed against Native Americans, blacks and — by way of being descendants of the two prior groups — Latinos. However, it is important that we do not forget these injustices because our adulation of historical and political figures prevents us from revealing the historical reality. A retelling of history that acknowledges only the standpoint of the winner is fantastical, not genuine history.
Alexander Adames is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at a.adames@cavalierdaily.com.
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