He Did What?

Let's talk about Christopher Columbus...

👩🏾‍🏫 In 1492, there were already millions of folk in the Americas--the indigenous people.

👩🏾‍🏫 Leif Erikson, a Viking, was the first European to sail to North America. He reached Canada 500 years before Columbus ever pointed his ship west, intending to reach Asia.

👩🏾‍🏫 Columbus did not discover America in 1492. In fact he never stepped foot on North American shores. 

👩🏾‍🏫 October 12 marks the day Columbus arrived in the Bahamas. He did reach the coasts of what today are Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, as well as explored the Central and South American coasts.

👩🏾‍🏫 What Columbus did in Hispaniola (what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) to the indigenous and friendly Taino people is absolutely abhorrent: he forced them into slavery, punishing them with loss of limb or death if they didn't collect enough gold. The indigenous population was destroyed by his brutality and transmitted European diseases.

👩🏾‍🏫 Columbus, who was the Governor of the territory, mistreated the Spanish colonists--his own people--in Hispaniola. This included flogging and execution without trial.

👩🏾‍🏫 By 1499, the Spanish King and Queen learned of his brutality. He was arrested and returned to Spain in chains where he admitted that some of the charges against him were true. They stripped him of his title as governor.

👩🏾‍🏫 Did Columbus do any good? Yes. He initiated the Columbian Exchange. That coin had two sides: On one side, it led to more exploitation, disease, and death for the indigenous people. On the other, it opened the door for European nations to colonize America and transfer goods, ideas, and cultural practices.

👩🏾‍🏫 Given EVERYTHING they have suffered and endured, does it take skin off anyone's back to recognize and celebrate the cultures, histories, and resilience of Indigenous people?

Don't want to celebrate a holiday? Then don't. Period. BUT don't downplay the significance of the story that's important to others either.

👩🏾‍🏫 History happened. Bad history happened. Not acknowledging that bad history happened doesn't change the fact that it DID happen.

Just keepin' it real...

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