JCC Violence, invasion, racism, genocide, terrorism; Happy Columbus Day everyone!

More like "let's celebrate Columbus Day by walking into someone's house and then insisting for the rest of our lives that that house is actually a house that is much, much farther away that we never would have been able to walk all the way to by going that direction."

 

Not quite...since Columbus' intent wasn't colonization, but to find a new trade route to Asia.

Your meme-card is more appropriate for celebrating Cinco De Mayo.

 

That's fairly ahistorical, Lee. Yes, the goal of Columbus's original voyage was to develop trade routes, and throughout his life he continued to believe that he'd found the far end of Asia. But his actions in the second and third voyages were quite explicitly geared toward setting up a colony on Hispaniola, and much of his later life was spent wrestling with his legal claims to extract profit from them. Contemporaries like De Las Casas agree that this was pretty transparently that this was his goal, and also that what he did amounted to genocide. These aren't some vogue new liberal accusations.

 

Well as a "hispanicphile", I can't really say I dislike Columbus' "discovery" Since it led to a flourishing and spread of Spanish culture.

 

Hispanophile. And Mexican culture, for example, is distinct from Spanish culture-- partly because it is influenced by Aztec, Mayan, and other Native American traditions.

 

It would be nice to get through a Columbus Day without a snarky thread here or snarky photos on FB.

 

Just like it would be nice to get through a Talk Like a Pirate Day without haters. It's just not going to happen.

 

Talk Like A Pirate Day is worse than genocide.

 

Yes, I am very well aware of that.

 

You've got to think positive about this!