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Let’s Talk About Columbus
Spoiler: He was a rat.
Awhile back, I joined an Italian-American heritage group on social media. It seemed like a good idea at the time; I’m interested in the Italian (Sicilian) heritage that my grandfather never talked about and this group would post articles and proverbs in Italian, which I’m studying. (Side note: My dear friend, Sabrina, is still waiting for me to attempt my pathetic Italian skills in a real conversation with her. Someday, I will be brave enough.)
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the group. Memes or articles would pop up on my news feed and I’d either like them or not. It was not a big part of my life, by any means.
Then, a few months ago, a topic about Columbus from the group popped up on my feed. There was a debate raging about his proper place in history and I added my two cents. I’m not shy about it. Christopher Columbus was a rapist and murderer, he and his men unabashedly writing about it in their journals. I hate that he is celebrated for “discovering” America instead of looking at the complicated history of exploration around the world, not just from the European prospective. I believe that we need to look at historical figures for who they really were, real people, not the superheroes that we sometimes build them up to be. Did some of them do noteworthy things for their time? Of course, but as modern people, we should…
