Christopher Columbus-One of the Biggest Lies They Teach You in School


If you ask the typical American elementary student, or even the average adult, "who sailed the ocean blue in 1492," they will probably say the name 'Christopher Columbus' right away. If you further question them, they may even go on to explain how Columbus discovered America, became BFFs with the Indians who willingly let him bring his European friends over to live in the New World and afterward everyone held hands and sang kumbaya. Not so. Many of these misconceptions surrounding Columbus and Native Americans are still widely believed by many people in the U.S. The common belief that Columbus 'found' America is false since Native Americans had already been living there. In fact, Columbus did not land in America but in the Caribbean islands. Since he thought he found the East Indies, Columbus incorrectly referred to the indigenous people as 'Indians'. Furthermore, he and his men enslaved the natives living in the area that is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In a mere four years, he reduced their population of several million to a couple hundred thousand by working them to death to satisfy his greed for gold. Probably not the hero elementary school teachers tell their students about.

So why do we have a day for Columbus again?  As more of Columbus's atrocities are being brought to light, the debate over whether Columbus Day should be replaced by Indigenous People’s Day has gained more attention. Indigenous People's Day "will be about recognizing native ancestors and shedding light on history that's often 'overlooked by mainstream society"' (Terry 1). Personally, I question the purpose of Columbus Day and whether it is worth celebrating at all.  Why do we glorify the man who is responsible for the deaths of countless people? He didn’t even find America. Why not place more emphasis on the Native Americans who are the true discoverers of our country? If we discard Columbus Day entirely, we should not ignore the darker elements of our nation’s history. Therefore, it is crucial to educate people on the accurate events of our nation’s past to understand our true heritage.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 18, 2017 at 6:39 AM

    I love how organized and structured your post was. One question I would pose is in what ways do you think we should education people in order to make sure they receive the correct information about our past?

    ReplyDelete

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