In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.
He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.
A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.
Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.
Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.
Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.
October 12 their dream came true, Y
ou never saw a happier crew!
“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.
But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.
The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.
Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.
He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.
The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.
This is the little ditty they used to teach us about Columbus when I was a kid. Since this poem can still found this at SCHOLASTIC, a producer of children's books, I'm going to have assume teachers are still using this to whitewash Columbus.
This is nothing short of crime because Christopher Columbus was nothing short of a devil in human skin. I just didn't know how big a devil until I read the comic at the link below.
However, I did not know that Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella and everybody else with an education knew the world was round before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That is, I knew the Greeks had proven this to be so centuries earlier. But I didn't know that this news had traveled, even to Spain, France and England.
So proving the world was round was not one of Columbus's goals like they told to us in elementary school.
An old cartoon on Christopher Columbus
But the facts being incorrect is not nearly as important as what was whitewashed out.
White Supremacy being what it is, I never supposed that Columbus treated the brown people they found in the Bahamas well. But I had no idea he was the kind of monster who would cut off ears and noses as a way of warning a group of people, "I'm in charge here now" -- after they saved him and his crew from a sinking ship during the previous trip.
Trust me. Christopher Columbus was more than a dumpster fire of a human being. He was a devil. And yet there's a federal holiday in his name?
Really?
Read more. This quasi-comic strip tells the real story
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day
* * * * * *
The real story of Columbus again, in a more standard format
as written by Jack Weatherford is Professor of Anthropology at Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is author of Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World and several other books... The essay above is adapted from an article Professor Weatherford wrote in 1989 for the Baltimore Evening Sun.
Read more. Essay format
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/weather.htm
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.
He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.
A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.
Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.
Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.
Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.
October 12 their dream came true, Y
ou never saw a happier crew!
“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.
But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.
The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.
Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.
He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.
The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.
This is the little ditty they used to teach us about Columbus when I was a kid. Since this poem can still found this at SCHOLASTIC, a producer of children's books, I'm going to have assume teachers are still using this to whitewash Columbus.
This is nothing short of crime because Christopher Columbus was nothing short of a devil in human skin. I just didn't know how big a devil until I read the comic at the link below.
I already knew Christopher Columbus left the Americas and went back to Spain for more boats and equipment because he'd seen gold around the native's necks. Even the song taught to children speaks of Columbus going back to Spain then returning again to the Americas (Bahamas)
I already knew and still know you can't discover land people are already living on.
As an older kid, I would eventually know Columbus and his crew brought all sort of diseases with them, including sexually transmitted diseases.
However, I did not know that Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella and everybody else with an education knew the world was round before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That is, I knew the Greeks had proven this to be so centuries earlier. But I didn't know that this news had traveled, even to Spain, France and England.
So proving the world was round was not one of Columbus's goals like they told to us in elementary school.
But the facts being incorrect is not nearly as important as what was whitewashed out.
White Supremacy being what it is, I never supposed that Columbus treated the brown people they found in the Bahamas well. But I had no idea he was the kind of monster who would cut off ears and noses as a way of warning a group of people, "I'm in charge here now" -- after they saved him and his crew from a sinking ship during the previous trip.
Trust me. Christopher Columbus was more than a dumpster fire of a human being. He was a devil. And yet there's a federal holiday in his name?
Really?
Read more. This quasi-comic strip tells the real story
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day
* * * * * *
The real story of Columbus again, in a more standard format
as written by Jack Weatherford is Professor of Anthropology at Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is author of Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World and several other books... The essay above is adapted from an article Professor Weatherford wrote in 1989 for the Baltimore Evening Sun.
Read more. Essay format
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/weather.htm
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