Columbus and Racism in 2009

"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue"

Columbus day has recently past and for many us growing up in a the public schooling system, this man is acknowledged for his so-called "discovery" of America. Absent from this narrative was the turn of events that happened to the indigenous people of the land. Event that were nothing short of enslavement and cultural genocide. My point here is not to debunk or discredit Columbus per se but it is to emphasize the fact that Columbus day is a manifestation of the racism and white supremacy that is ingrained in our schools and our everyday language that many of us often overlook, especially in 2009 in this so-called "post-racial Obama" era.

Best believe that the propagation of historical inaccuracies and the negation of indigenous people's and other folks of color's narratives are alive and happening (http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/columbusday_celebration.php and also http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/columbus/index.htm). The power to write history or what we know as history is the power to impact the lenses that we put on as people or what is put on for us. What people know and what people have been taught are perspectives that are not disconnected from a culture, a bias, and a agenda that has very much to do with who is oppressed and who is not oppressed.

So given this situation, we must in 2009 and beyond become creators of language and lenses. We must continue to remember despite how painful our histories are. And while anger is often part of that process, it is a raw emotion, a human emotion that carries the frustrations, the injustices, and traumas ingrained in people's experience. Racism exist in many spaces and it is especially present in everyday language and the institutions that contribute to the languages and lenses that which people use to articulate/view the world, history, peoples, and themselves.

ARISTYLES