I couldn’t let the week of “Columbus Day Sales” pass without acknowledging the genesis of this now contentious holiday. Why has Columbus Day become so controversial? Why has this intrepid adventurer come to be considered a villain rather than a hero?
In order to understand you need to be able to answer one question: what is worse than white privilege in America? Answer: the man responsible for bringing white privilege to America.
Generally credit for coining the term “white privilege” goes to Peggy McIntosh, a professor of Women’s Studies at Wellesley – a rarified position, if ever there was one – back in the 80’s. Since then it has caught on like wildfire in every bastion of progressivism in the land. Especially the White House – culminating in this year’s most dubious proclamation of honor by el Presidente:
Though these early travels expanded the realm of European exploration, to many they also marked a time that forever changed the world for the indigenous peoples of North America. Previously unseen disease, devastation, and violence were introduced to their lives -- and as we pay tribute to the ways in which Columbus pursued ambitious goals -- we also recognize the suffering inflicted upon Native Americans and we recommit to strengthening tribal sovereignty and maintaining our strong ties.
As pointed out in the Washington Examiner: “The “inclusion of such remarks wasn't always so apparent in Obama's first term.” indeed, in 2010 there was no mention of American Indians at all and in 2012 (election year) there was no mention of “violence, disease deprivation or devastation.”
Butt from 2013 forward the rhetoric has become increasingly harsh and critical of the “white privilege” brought to America by the old, dead, Italian white guy. The Sultan Knish (Daniel Greenfield) explains why this is “all according to plan” (double h/t Lantern) in The End of Columbus Day is the End of America (exerts; as they say, read the whole thing):
The explorer who discovered America has become controversial because the very idea of America has become controversial…
The discovery of America has come to be seen as somehow shameful and worst of all, politically incorrect…
It is about whether America really has any right to exist at all. Is there any argument against celebrating Columbus Day, that cannot similarly be applied to the Fourth of July?…
If Columbus is to be stricken from the history books in favor of ideological thugs like Malcolm X or Caesar Chavez, then America must soon follow. Columbus' crime is that he enabled European settlement of the continent…
It is easier to hack away at a nation's history by beginning with the lower branches.
Columbus is an easier target than America itself, though La Raza considers both colonialist vermin. Americans are less likely to protest over the banishment of Columbus to the politically correct Gulag than over the banishing America itself, which was named after another one of those colonialist explorers, Amerigo Vespucci. First they came for Columbus Day and then for the Fourth of July…A nation's mythology, its paragons and heroes, its founding legends and great deeds, are its soul. To replace them with another culture's perspective on its history is to kill that soul.
Butt don’t despair; there is a simple fix to all of this. All we have to do is concede that Turkish President Erdogan’s claim that America was discovered first by Muslims is correct and everything will be cool again! We can drop our antipathy for the old Genoan and focus all our disdain and hatred on the “death to America” cult.
In closing I mention once again that whatever social engineering claptrap is allowed to enter the classroom in one generation will emerge as mainstream dogma in the next. So remember, in addition to asking “who watches the watchers” we should also be asking “who teaches the teachers.”
Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!
Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network
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