Columbus Day? Why?
If there is one thing that Tha Native and I have in common, it’s a complete and utter disgust for bullshit, disrespectful Halloween costumes and idiotic holidays like Columbus Day. What the hell did Christopher Columbus ever do? Please don’t say that he, “sailed the ocean blue,” or that he discovered what is now known as The United States of America. Ya, he sailed the ocean blue. But he had a very bad idea of what he was going to do as there was already a very good understanding of the size and shape of the Earth. But if you believe that he had some secret knowledge of the size and shape of the Earth and that he discovered the U.S., that would be your very poor American history education that the American school system has clearly failed at doing correctly. Oh, and I have some real history books I can recommend to you if you like.
So, why do I say it’s an idiotic holiday? Why do I seem to dislike Columbus so much? Why can’t I just let it pass and allow you all to possibly enjoy that day off or take advantage of the Columbus Day sales? Besides it simply makes this country complicit with an artificial, nationalistic history that leaves us more ignorant about facts than before finishing a typical elementary school history lesson, it is morally reprehensible.
First off, Christopher Columbus, despite clearly never making it to India, which was his destination when he set sail, was absolutely convinced he had made it there. But his stupidity is not what troubles me so much. It was his actions against the native people he came across. But, to be clear before moving on, he only reached a number of Caribbean islands. He may have been close to Florida, but he never landed in Florida or anywhere else that later became the United States. This fact alone should tell you that we shouldn’t celebrate this man in America. He didn’t discover America. He never reached America. Nothing.
Oh! Maybe you believe he discovered the Americas. Is that it? Nope. Not the Americas. Not even those islands that he visited numerous times and even lived in for some time. Nothing. Not only did those natives on those islands make it there first, they made it there way before Columbus. On boats just as he did. Maybe from a shorter distance, but almost certainly on smaller boats with less supplies. Who knows. Whatever the case, they beat him to it.
Okay, so maybe you think he was the first European to reach the Americas. Nope! Leif Erikson beat him by at least a couple hundred years. Yes. Leif Erikson reached North America at least a couple hundred years earlier and made it quite far down the eastern part of what is now Canada. He may have very well made it down to the New England area of the U.S. and possibly even down to North Carolina. But why don’t we celebrate him and not Columbus? I’m glad you asked.
Well, in fact some parts of the U.S. do celebrate Leif Erikson Day instead of Columbus Day. And some parts of the U.S. stopped celebrating Columbus Day and have sometimes replaced it with Native American Day or American Indian Day. But that didn’t quite answer your question though did it. The more specific question is why did we ever celebrate Columbus?
Well, Erikson didn’t go around slaughtering the native people he came across in North America. Yep, Columbus and his companions absolutely slaughtered, in the most brutal ways possible, the native people he came across. It’s all quite well documented by a Spanish priest, Bartolomé de las Casas, who kept a diary of his times with Columbus. And the details are stomach turning. The butchering of men, women, and children; sometimes just for fun. The selling of little girls to his Conquistador companions for reasons I’m sure you could imagine. Columbus in his own diary mentions how girls the age of ten were quite a popular purchase by the Conquistadors.
And he was responsible for it all. He led the expedition. He was the governor of at least one of the areas that he claimed for the Spanish crown. And the King and Queen of Spain allowed it for quite a while until they discovered just what an incredibly disgusting and inept governor he was. I mean, I can’t think of many men in history who were as bad as him. We are talking rape. Rape of children. Slavery. Genocide. A population on certain islands in the tens of thousands to triple and double digits in a incredibly short time. Many even committed suicide just to avoid the disgusting and brutal ways that they knew they would be put to death by.
So, if what I am saying is true, and it is all well documents by Columbus himself and Bartolomé de las Casas, then why again do we celebrate this man’s life? I have no idea. But education of the facts is the first step to correcting our poor education of American history. We almost forget about slavery of the African people. We are more educated on our dear president Lincoln freeing the slaves from those terrible Southerners. But slavery was everywhere in the U.S. So forget that, “all men are created equal.” And what about the genocide of the indigenous people of the U.S.? Apparently they weren’t equal either. As I stated at the beginning of this, we are taught a very poor understanding of American history. One that brainwashes us into believing the U.S. can do no wrong. It makes us poor citizens of the world and gives us a very poor understanding of the facts.
So lets all speak out against this incredibly stupid holiday and spread this blog post far and wide on Columbus Day. Share this on Twitter. Share it on Facebook. Share it on all of your favorite social media sites. Show that you care about facts. Show that you care about all humans. Show that you care about morality. Tha Native thanks you. And what about those Halloween costumes? Well, stay tuned and find out. See you all very soon.
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