Is Christopher Columbus to be enshrined in the Constitution?
Should statues that bear his likeness be honored?
It’s not in the eyes of all at Washington State College.
During two days in late September, student panelists at $55,000-per-year Whitman College partook of a lecture on the anathematized explorer’s eponymous holiday.
Along the way, attendee Nell Falvey claimed a monument to the man — installed at the local courthouse — “glorifies colonialism and whiteness in a way that shouldn’t be welcomed…”
The Whitman Wire agrees.
Falvey discussed the irony in the statue at the front of the courthouse during a discussion after the lectures. Christopher Columbus — a murderer, a slave owner and an eventual prisoner — stands tall on a pedestal in front of the town’s judiciary structure.
“Who is justice working for?” the student posed.
In its coverage, the school paper didn’t get everything right:
The United States’ public education system has taught its students for centuries that Christopher Columbus found the United States.
Of course, the “unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America” was signed in 1776, whereas Columbus reached America in the 15th century.
Before the Constitution was ratified, it took 1787
I’m not sure if they teach that now, but they used to.
Amid our contemporary conversation over “structural” racism, the outlet managed employment of the term:
Columbus did in fact enslave Indigenous people during his voyages. His role as an explorer also led to the structural genocide against native tribes.
The Wire did point out that Christopher’s geographical reach was limited:
Columbus reached South America but never set foot in the United States. He is still a hero in America, however.
He also, it seems, is perpetually maligned as the monster who murdered North America’s “Indians.”
I’d guess many a modern-day college graduate would claim Columbus wiped out the Washington Redskins.
Consider this compilation from American Indians commenting on man (Language Warning).
As for Whitman Professor Stan Thayne, he’d love to see the courthouse monument removed.
He, too, considers it a symbol for which — if I understand correctly — nothing should ever be:
“I think the reason that there is an Italian American symbol in front of the court house is that for most people it isn’t an Italian American symbol. It’s a symbol of white America.”
Today, Caucasian Christopher seems to be lacking love.
According to me, 97,000 petitioners had signed a petition in July asking for the removal of the Columbus statue from New York City.
The replacement is a memorial to Marsha Johnson, a gay liberation activist who co-founded S.T.A.R. — Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
It now has over 165,000 signed petitions
And last month, the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District — in the California city of Santa Maria — voted to lose its logo…consisting of a drawing of the Santa Maria:
On Tuesday, the Santa Maria high school district board agreed to cease production of any new representations of its ship logo on business cards, mastheads, or other district supplies that have traditionally featured the image, and tasked Superintend… https://t.co/VX8CzcIZah
— Santa Maria Times (@SantaMariaTimes) September 16, 2021
Back to Professor Stan, he asked, “What’s the most appropriate way that we can be here on this land that was taken through coercion and violence?”
“Just ignoring Columbus Day isn’t enough,” he insisted.
His class certainly isn’t merely doing such — the lecture series eyed a history of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, something governments and other entities are progressively preferring to the classic Columbus Day.
How does this holiday get its name?
It celebrates Columbus, not Columbus.
Another note: The Whitman Wire speculated on why the Italians were integrated into the country.
Their connection to Columbus’s nationality helped them assimilate into U.S. culture.
I’d venture to say that isn’t true. Many generations of immigrants have assimilated not because they are racial but because it is. America —A beacon of hope as well as unity
That light, l fear, has dimmed.
It seems to me America’s pendulum has swung.
And when it sways — like Columbus — it journeys far.
Not long ago, children were taught, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
It’s not difficult to believe that — at a time of American innocence — the story of our beginning was simplified…and even sanitized.
After all, children were once told that babies originated from storks.
What is the point?
I’d say there’s a very good chance.
This is true for both birds and mammals.
-ALEX
Get more from me
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