The Left’s Dogged Push To ‘Cancel’ Christopher Columbus

More and more places are replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The New York Times reported on a number of cities that have officially changed the name from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day — it’s around 100 cities in 8 states.

Christopher Columbus is “problematic” to many on the left because they (selectively) view history through the lens of modern sensibilities and predetermine who are the “good guys” and who are the “bad guys.”

The fact is, there are good and bad things with everyone — this is what makes them human. I recall reading somewhere that “there is no one righteous, no not one.” The same is true for culture — is the left’s current sensibilities on, say, advocating for aborting innocent babies in the womb as a means of birth control going to stand the test of time? I don’t think so.

But, to the left, Western Civilization is always bad and any other option is preferable. What is astonishing is the blatant disregard of recorded history to paint indigenous groups as inherently virtuous pacifists, focused on the environment, and oppressed by the white man. That’s not exactly how things were back in the day.

On this #IndigenousPeoplesDay, we reflect on the incredible cultures of Native Americans and also reflect on the centuries of cruelty and suffering the Native community has experienced, often at the hands of our own government.

— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) October 14, 2019

Of course, you wouldn’t know that if you went to a public school that uses the horrid History text by Howard Zinn who used the ellipses to bypass large swaths of source documents in order to prove his point. This was illustrated in a clip from The Sopranos where Tony’s son, A.J. was reading Zinn’s book, A People’s History of the United States, which paints Columbus as a man hell-bent on the domination of native peoples.

The full video has been removed which included Tony’s defense of Columbus, but you can sorta see where the vilification of Columbus here:

Zinn’s selective history is dangerous, and it a huge part of why there is an outpouring of hatred for Christopher Columbus.

Mary Grabar who wrote Debunking Howard Zinn wrote in The Federalist that it is the legacy of Zinn that is causing the pushback on Columbus.

Zinn died in 2010, but his work continues on through the Zinn Education Project that in September collaborated with the Smithsonian in offering credit-bearing “teach-in” classes on abolishing Columbus Day for teachers. On October 8 they mailed out a newsletter that lauded two states, Maine and New Mexico, and cities, such as Columbus, Ohio, and Alexandria, Virginia, that in the past year replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. Also just joining the list are Washington, D.C. and Princeton, New Jersey.

The newsletter urged teachers to purchase and download their materials to lead students in lobbying their schools and cities to join the effort to “Abolish Columbus Day.”

“Celebrating Columbus means celebrating colonialism, celebrating racism, celebrating genocide,” the newsletter announced. Instead, “tribute” should be paid “to the people who were here first, who are still here, and who are leading the struggle for a sustainable planet.”

The political agenda is clear. Like Zinn himself, the project presents the American Indian as one amorphous mass embodying the stereotype of communistic pacifist feminists. It’s the “Usable Indian,” which at one time embodied the “savage,” but then in the 1960s the hippie. The Indian serves as proxy in the never-ending “struggle.”

In the 1960s and 1970s it was for free love and ending a war against Communist North Vietnam. Today, it’s for “a sustainable planet”—or the Marxist Green New Deal and for casting all patriotic white people as “white nationalists.”

Source: The Federalist

Prager University posted a video of Steven Crowder explaining the change from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day — using actual historical facts:

Happy Columbus Day!

Want to understand the real reason #ColumbusDay was changed to #IndigenousPeoplesDay? @scrowder host of Louder with Crowder, explains in this video 👇 pic.twitter.com/W7XtqILawk

— PragerU (@prageru) October 14, 2019

Ah, those pesky facts getting in the way of a good narrative.

Christopher Columbus had detractors in his own time and he addressed them in his 1503 report to the King and Queen of Spain, “let those who are fond of blaming and finding fault, while they sit safely at home, ask, ‘Why did you not do thus and so?’ I wish they were on this voyage; I well believe another voyage of another kind awaits them.”

Did Christopher Columbus just say that his critics should go to hell? Yes, I believe he did. Christopher Columbus was a badass.

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