Posted by Dave on 10/10/05 at 11:25:01 am
Categories: Political Ravings, Social Justice Ravings, Race Ravings

Does anyone else find it odd that today we celebrate a man who committed mass genocide?

In 1493, when Columbus returned to the Hispaniola, he quickly implemented policies of slavery and mass extermination of the Taino population of the Caribbean. Within three years, five million were dead. Las Casas, the primary historian of the Columbian era, writes of many accounts of the horrors that the Spanish colonists inflicted upon the indigenous population: hanging them en mass, hacking their children into pieces to be used as dog feed, and other horrid cruelties. The works of Las Casas are often omitted from popular American history books and courses because Columbus is considered a hero by many, even today.

In a time where I write posts at least every week about the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan, how can we celebrate a man who committed genocide at an even greater scale?

Why is there no movie, similar to Hotel Rwanda, that documents that atrocities that Columbus committed against the Arawak Indians?

And if you do not know what I am talking about, read this book.

UPDATE: Go check out the Transform Columbus Day Alliance.

The Transform Columbus Day Alliance actively rejects the celebration of

Christopher Columbus

and his legacy of domination, oppression, and colonialism. We also reject historical misconceptions regarding Columbus and his "discovery" of the Americas.

By saying

NO

to Columbus and his day we are saying

YES

to a new future of mutual respect, collaboration, and equality,

a future that respects...

=the rights of indigenous peoples
=the natural environment
=democratic & economic justice
=gender equity over global patriarchy
=free and equal speech over hate speech

Go read more over there.

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