The Civil Conversations exist to end racism by helping America understand it’s depth, destruction, and longevity. Thank you for being a reader.
Today is the day that the country honors Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.
We have a strange way of selecting our heroes. For years and years, the outdoor community revered naturalist, ‘Father’ of Yosemite National Park, and beloved founder of the Sierra Club John Muir. Until the Sierra Club finally recognized the harm of his racist comments related to Black and especially Indigenous Americans.
According to Atlas Obsucra, “John Muir has at least one high school, 21 elementary schools, six middle schools and one college named after him, as well as a glacier, a mountain, a woods, a cabin, an inlet, a highway, a library, a motel, a medical center, a tea room and a minor planet.” I myself dream about hiking the 200-mile-long trail in the High Sierra Mountain range named for him.
Humans are complicated. I admit that. But hundreds of years before John Muir recognized the beauty of what is today Yosemite National Park, Indigenous people were there enjoying, living on, and caring for this special place. Yet America chose a white man who saw and commented on natives and their culture as vile and filthy to honor as the man who should be known as the father of Yosemite. Even though Muir discovered Yosemite the same way Columbus discovered America.
“My heroes have always been cowboys” sang Willie Nelson as his hit song climbed to the number 1 spot on the country charts in 1980. A fitting spot since cowboys are America’s number one iconic hero. Strong, brave, courteous to women, deadly to those of questionable morals, and white. But in reality, cowboying was a profession that respected skill and hard work. Skin color mattered. But it mattered less than it mattered most other places. So after the Civil War, in the short heyday of open range cowboying, Blacks were drawn west and by most reckonings, about 25% of old west cowboys were Black.
Yet, John Wayne, an iconic and influential portrayer of rough and ready cowboys, refused to cast any Black actors as America’s heroes. In his infamous 1971 interview in Playboy Magazine (which I assure you, I only purchased to read the articles) John Wayne expressed his views with clarity. “With a lot of blacks, there’s quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent and rightfully so,” he told the publication. “But we can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgement to irresponsible people.”
Wayne also claimed that “the academic community has developed certain tests that determine whether blacks are sufficiently equipped scholastically,” and “some blacks have tried to force the issue and enter college when they haven’t passed the tests and don’t have the requisite background.”
“I had a black slave in The Alamo and I had a correct number of blacks in The Green Berets. If it’s supposed to be a black character, naturally I use a black actor,” he said. “But I don’t go as far as hunting for positions for them. I think the Hollywood studios are carrying their tokenism a little too far.”
Wayne also slammed Native American Indians for their role in history. “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. … Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival,” he disclosed. “There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
John Wayne. American icon. There’s a lot to deconstruct in just that one interview!
America has a ton of racist heroes who were people of note. Andrew Jackson, who payed extra if a run-away enslaved person was returned with up to 300 hundred lashings – which more than likely took the slave’s life. Woodrow Wilson who re-segregated the federal workforce and premiered the ultra-racist movie Birth of a Nation credited with - not the birth of a Nation, but the re-birth of the KKK - for foreign dignitaries explaining that he wanted them to see “The Negro problem I am having to deal with.”
But only one historical racist figure, an explorer who never set foot on mainland USA, is honored with some 6,000 place names or statues and has a federal holiday named for him. Who exactly was Christopher and why do we honor him?
Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1937, but had been celebrated as early as 1792 when New York’s Columbian Order wanted to bring attention to the contributions both immigrants and Catholics had made to the new country. And, in fairness, maybe they had no idea of Columbus’ cruelty.
But cruel he was and today we know that for sure.
According to historian James Loewen, in his book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen has this to say about the explorer:
“On his first voyage, Columbus kidnapped some ten to twenty-five Indians and took them back with him to Spain. Only seven or eight of the Indians arrived alive, but they caused quite a stir in Seville. Ferdinand and Isabella provided Columbus with seventeen ships, 1,200 to 1,500 men, cannons, crossbows, guns, cavalry, and attack dogs for a second voyage.
When Columbus and his men returned to Haiti in 1493, they demanded food, gold, spun cotton-whatever the Indians had that they wanted, including sex with their women. To ensure cooperation, Columbus used punishment by example. When an Indian committed even a minor offense, the Spanish cut off his ears or nose. Disfigured, the person was sent back to his village as living evidence of the brutality the Spaniards were capable of.
…attempts at resistance gave Columbus an excuse to make war. On March 24, 1495, he set out to conquer the Arawaks. Bartolome de Las Casas, a priest, historian and social reformer who had settled in Hispaniola, described the force Columbus assembled to put down the rebellion. "… he chose 200 foot soldiers and 20 cavalry, with many crossbows and small cannon, lances, and swords, and a still more terrible weapon against the Indians in addition to the horses: this was 20 hunting dogs, who were turned loose and immediately tore the Indians apart."
Naturally, the Spanish won. According to Kirkpatrick Sale, who quotes Ferdinand Columbus's biography of his father: "The soldiers mowed down dozens with point-blank volleys, loosed the dogs to rip open limbs and bellies, chased fleeing Indians into the bush to skewer them on sword and pike, and with God's aid soon gained a complete victory, killing many Indians and capturing others who were also killed."
Having as yet found no fields of gold, Columbus had to return some kind of dividend to Spain. In 1495 the Spanish on Haiti initiated a great slave raid. They rounded up 1,500 Arawaks, then selected the 500 best specimens (of whom 200 would die enroute to Spain). Another 500 were chosen as slaves for the Spaniards staying on the island. The rest were released. A Spanish eyewitness described the event: "Among them were many women who had infants at the breast. They, in order the better to escape us, since they were afraid we would turn to catch them again, left their infants anywhere on the ground and started to flee like desperate people…."
A particularly repellent aspect of the slave trade was sexual. As soon as the 1493 expedition got to the Caribbean, before it even reached Haiti, Columbus was rewarding his lieutenants with native women to rape. On Haiti, sex slaves were one more perquisite that the Spaniards enjoyed. Columbus wrote a friend in 1500, "… (girls) from nine to ten are now in demand."
Possibly I can understand the 18th century need to have folks who were themselves fighting American racism and discrimination to present a hero that represented them and who maybe they didn’t know about his inhumanity. But I was truly at a loss the other day when I went to the bank and there was a sign on the door indicating they would be closed for Columbus Day. Columbus Day?!?! How difficult would it be to have changed the sign to reflect what people have been advocating for for decades: “We’ll be closed on Monday the 10th in honor of Indigenous People’s Day”
America remains oblivious to our race thing.
This morning I feel only a little more hopeful with the news item: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/governor-voids-territorial-orders-targeting-native-americans/ar-AA12ObQM?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=297484531ad6445fa3b718dc10b8158a
I am very worried about our country but must acknowledge when SOME things are done to correct injustice. Little breaths of fresh air give hope when we are immersed in the sewage of so many of our politicians. We must continue believing and working to push evil back and let America be a just nation for all. Civil Conversations keeps our feet to the fire. Thank you.
Thank you for the hard work you do ... growing up with an overall awareness of the injustice of racial barriers, but now as a fully grown up but yet not fully educated white person, I am grateful for the substance you bring every writing - nothing subtle about the facts and long overdue for so many of us to really internalize the truth and search for significant change. I don't want to be part of the oblivious America.I want real change soon - can't be soon enough . Uncomfortable to realize just how dormant my grief about this has been. Thank you for the education you give us. Thank you for who you are and what you do.