Column: Christopher Columbus was a fraud. He doesn’t deserve statues or a holiday in his honor.
If anyone had asked me as a child to define Christopher Columbus, I would have simply said that he discovered America.
That’s what I was taught in grade school. As children, we honored him by repeating the slogan, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” We could recite the names of his fleet of ships — the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria — as easily as we could say our own names.
He was a hero, our textbooks said, not only because he was the first European to arrive in North America, but because he proved a fact that had been in contention. His ships did not fall off the edge of the earth because it is round and not flat.
Years after becoming an adult, the story of the great voyager still seemed harmless. But not anymore. Our textbooks were full of lies. It is time America set the record straight.
Christopher Columbus was a fraud.
He was indeed a brave and prolific explorer, but he also was a brutal, evil man who never even made it to the place that is now the United States. He landed by chance in the Caribbean, leaving a legacy of pillaging and slavery that eventually resulted in his arrest and return to Spain in chains, stripped of nobility.
For most white Americans, Columbus is the brave conqueror who started the trans-Atlantic colonization that made it possible for them to be here. But for many Native Americans, he represents the quintessential barbaric settler.
The bloody trail of the colonial takeover of the Americas began with him. In the wake of colonization, countless Native Americans were killed, enslaved or otherwise driven from their land.
Monuments to this man do not deserve a place in our public spaces, much less should there be an American holiday in his honor.
The recent social awakening in America has had an unexpected consequence. Not only has it prompted us to reexamine the role of race in the progression of African Americans, it has reopened a new chapter on Indigenous peoples.
Representing just 1.6% of the U.S. population, Native Americans never have had a strong voice. From the moment the first settlers arrived on their property, history has attempted to relegate them to a footnote.
They are the true founders of this land. African Americans should embrace them as co-beneficiaries of the movement for social justice. The plight of Native Americans is as shameful as ours.
In Chicago, city officials are grappling with what to do about the larger-than-life statues of Columbus in Grant Park and Arrigo Park in the University Village/Little Italy neighborhood. There is only one thing that must be done — take them down.
And while they’re at it, they should rename Columbus Drive. It doesn’t necessarily have to become George Floyd Drive, as some have suggested, but Christopher Columbus’ namesake should be retired.
Many Italian Americans disagree. They see Columbus, who was born in Italy though he represented Spain in his voyages, as a symbol of their heritage. They argue that the statues represent pride in the achievements of not just those of Italian descent, but all European immigrants who came to this country with nothing and prospered.
They insist that Columbus’ legacy has been negatively distorted. It has not. If anything, it was distorted in his favor, as were the legacies of many early Americans we have lifted up as heroes for centuries.
We are no longer children, brainwashed by the valiant story of a man who sailed the ocean blue. We are living a rare moment when America is painfully pulling back the curtains of its hideous past. Now is not the time to be timid about choosing between what we now know is correct over the fantasies of those who want to cling to a lie.
The contributions Italian Americans have made to this country are much greater than the image of the Columbus history has created. Among the many business leaders, scientists, educators, artists, architects and even Civil War heroes, there are many Italian Americans more deserving of a statue.
From their arrival in large numbers during the late 1800s, Italian Americans have contributed heartily to the building of this nation. The early immigrants provided unskilled labor to help build a booming industrial economy. In addition to constructing factories, they helped build the sprawling infrastructure of roads, dams and tunnels to transport goods from one part of the country to the other.
And they did this, for the most part, without reaping the benefits of the economic gains their tireless work should have afforded them. With such a rich history, it makes no sense to enter into a philosophical battle with Native Americans.
The bottom line is that Columbus did not “discover” the Americas. Historians say he encountered Indigenous peoples, whom he called Indians, on each of his four voyages across the Atlantic. In his diaries, he described them as ignorant people who would “make fine servants.”
It is ridiculous to pit one side against the other. But if we must choose, there is only one rightful winner — Native Americans.
Many Americans side with them, just as we did in forcing the Washington Redskins to rename their NFL team. And we will continue to insist that the Chicago Blackhawks do the same, despite the hockey team’s assertion that its name and logo symbolize a real life Native American hero.
A month ago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she did not support removing the statues from the city’s landscape. She preferred instead to use them to help educate people about the “full history” of the United States.
Many Americans are reexamining the history we were taught for years, and we don’t like what we’ve found. Columbus’ legacy is as dirty as Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ or Gens. Robert E. Lee’s and Stonewall Jackson’s.
Clinging to a heritage represented by Columbus is no more noble than claiming the Confederate flag as a birthright. To condemn Confederate monuments and allow statues of Columbus to remain standing is simply hypocrisy.
Twitter @dahleeng
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