In “Columbus Day needs to serve as a reminder” (ODE, 10/08), the Emerald editorial board wrote that “everyone needs to be taught the truth about our country’s origin, no matter how difficult the conversation may be.” The idea was that Columbus Day is one of those examples where we tend to glorify something that wasn’t entirely pretty.
Agreed, but if real educational progress in this context is to occur, we need to do more than just show the consequences of how one group of conquistadors affected any given pre-existing culture or cultures.
From a knowledge standpoint, the problem with using dates like 1492 is that it makes us inclined to ignore what was going on in affected places before these times.
An implied suggestion concurrently emerges when we overdo this: that this (enter date here) is when real “history” begins in certain regions. This creates a fundamentally flawed presentation that may be convenient if one’s goal is to create a simplistic dichotomy of victims and aggressors, but rarely if ever does it advance the discussion in truly relevant terms.
The fact of the matter is that conquest is not a European invention, which this kind of arbitrary dating tends to imply. For centuries, if not millennia, prior to the arrival of Columbus, the same phenomenon was occurring in the Americas, as it was in Africa, where the practice of slavery — which continues today — is thousands of years old. In this context all “civilizations” are equally responsible for what may be regarded as imperialistic crimes against humanity. It makes absolutely no sense to select one society over all others when engaging in such a discussion.
The modern tendency in this regard is that one should only bash Europe and the United States while ignoring the similar histories of all other empires and tribes. There’s really no valid moral logic to this kind of politically correct approach. When taken too far, the practice amounts to pseudo-scholarship, not because of what is called to our attention but because of what we are subtly encouraged to ignore.
How ironic that this double standard is often imposed upon the student body, even in America, by so many of her own educators. Considering these educators’ knowledge of the truer picture of human history, one wonders what they hope to accomplish in encouraging such a biased fixation against these “white, male-dominated” societies. (Of course, it may be that many of these teachers really don’t have a clue about the bigger scenario, i.e., maybe they never actually thought about what life in North America was like before 1492, for example.)
Personally, I would change the editorial’s suggestion, by suggesting that, “Everyone, in all nations, need to be taught the truth about territorial conquest as an ancient and worldwide phenomenon.”
This isn’t to encourage moral equivocation but to promote the kind of relevant discussion that I think the Emerald is advocating. This is a serious subject and one that we should all take a good hard look at, but in doing so, let’s approach the whole matter seriously — and honestly.
Mark Grant, Class of ’85, graduated with an international studies degree.