Columbus Day
Written by Dan McDonald
Columbus like ships
a sobering look at Europe’s negative influences on
the Americas after Columbus
Columbus
Day has lost its luster. We can still recount the bravery of sailors that
pressed their way westwards on uncharted seas. We would like to be able to
celebrate the triumphant march of European and Christian civilization into the
Americas with the gusto we once did when those of us who are older ones now
were young and reciting the rhyme of how in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean
blue. But the story of what Columbus and our European ancestors brought to the
Americas we now understand to have been a mixed cup containing both blessing
and curse.
Columbus sailed in service of King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella. Their marriage had created a united Spain. Columbus
discovered tribes who were open, giving, and virtually weaponless. Howard Zinn writes
how Columbus describes the tribes he first met in his log, saying: “They do
not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by
the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears
are made of cane… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could
subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
We cannot escape the reality that as
the European nations of the colonial era expanded into the Americas that a
nearly universal story of the subjugation of non-European peoples took place. The
European powers became empires which had one set of laws for those who were
Europeans and another set of laws for the conquered natives. Columbus
encouraged Spain to seek out the gold treasures of the New World, to make the
native populations forced laborers, and to bring Christianity by peace or by
war. It was not long until Europeans were reaping harvests of shame to fill
their national treasuries by taking native lands, resources, and then employing
slaves to produce products to be enjoyed by Europeans in Europe and the
Americas, with little left over for the slaves forced to produce the wealth.
To deny that racism was a reality in
the Americas conquered by Spanish, British, French and Dutch colonial powers is
something no one can any longer do without simply refusing to acknowledge the
realities of the colonial system that expanded European power into the Western
Hemisphere.
Perhaps it might be an easy thing to
pass legislation de-listing the remembrance of Columbus Day. But perhaps that
would be too easy for us to do. National histories and the stories we teach to
a nation’s children are by and large myth making meant to instill not an
understanding of history but an understanding of some supposed national
greatness. Nations teach their young to imagine their nation not as like the
other nations, but as exceptions rising above the common lot of humanity which
is angelic and demonic, cultured and brutal, tolerant and prejudiced. But if we
fail to communicate that we are all people and nations with potential for great
evil and cruelty, who use power to expand wealth at the expense of those over
whom we have power, we will likely never face the ways in which we continue to
use world power to subjugate others in favor of those whom power favors.
Inhumane behavior to others is
generally justified by describing others as less human, less civilized, less
industrious as our favored group. The stereotypes of those we subjugated to our
purposes were dehumanized with such stereotypes. The Native American who taught
new world agricultural methods to the Pilgrims were later generally described
as indolent savages incapable of handling alcohol. The African-American, who
was forced into slavery were described with dehumanizing stereotypes. There
remain stereotypes all too easily fixed on the minority races in the residual
remains of a truly systematically engineered American racism.
Has progress been made? I believe
progress has been made. But the reality is that we are far from reaching that
dream of men and women be judged by the content of their character alone.
Stereotypes still float in our minds. Stereotypes seem to me to be inherently a
dangerous thing. As a white man I have told the story of how I was once in a
convenience store and four young black males entered the store. I found myself wondering if there would be trouble. One of the young men addressed me very politely. I was ashamed with how I had reacted to stereotypes I didn't know resided within me. Because of that experience I can imagine a deadly situation arising when an armed policeman has the same sort of stereotypical thought passing through his mind when facing a situation. Thus there is this area in American culture in which true remaining systemic racism exists alongside unknown stereotypical racism that we sometimes have never discovered but exists within us. The reality is that African American males face different responses when seen than white males when seen. This is part of our
national reality and much of this can be traced to how the European powers that
gained control of the Western hemisphere after Columbus employed their power. A European privilege was established along with subjugation of non-Europeans. Stereotyping was instituted as a way of rationalizing such injustices. We live in a culture which has never fully dealt with that legacy in a complete or healthy manner.
So do we rid ourselves of “Columbus
Day” and hope that by killing the symbol of this legacy, we kill part of the problem? Maybe we need to
do that. Or do we remember Columbus Day and remind ourselves that the systemic
injustices that resulted after the 1492 voyage are something we are now left struggling with for many future decades?
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