Brown University will no longer recognize “Columbus Day” as a holiday.
No Columbus Day At Brown
The faculty of Brown University voted to establish a new academic holiday in October called “Fall Weekend” which will be celebrated at the same time as “Columbus Day.” The faculty voted to change the name because a group of Brown students protested the observance of Columbus Day. After all, Christopher Columbus treated Native Americans so very badly. He conquered them and caused them to have horrible diseases, which, by the way, eventually lead to the establishment of the most powerful and wealthiest nation on earth.
Brown University students celebrated the announcement along with members of the Narragansett Indian Tribe.
I have news for Brown University students: most of the Founding Fathers owned slaves, Lincoln mistreated his wife, Malcolm X was a complete sexist, Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy were womanizers, and ALL of them were completely unacceptably politically incorrect by today’s standards. If you want to go down this road and judge people by today’s standards, then we cannot honor anything in America’s past.
Oh, and another thing, Native Americans went to war with and conquered each other, and also treated women really badly, so we can’t really celebrate them either. And Africans enslaved each other and also did horrible things to each other, so they can’t be celebrated either. The Japanese/Chinese/Mongols/Koreans spent the better part of 2000 years trying to kill each other, and they really treat women badly too, so let’s not celebrate them either. In fact, the history of the world is filled with people who did horrible things to each other, so perhaps we can’t celebrate any culture, nation or the founding of anything. After all, life sucks.
In fact, why don’t you all engage in self-flagellation for the next 20 years to make up for the fact that you live in a country founded by people who conquered other people and were not-so-nice sometimes. After all, how dare Columbus discover a land that allows you to spend $60,000 a year on a useless education.
In the meantime, this racist/sexist/oppressive individual will continue to enjoy the fruits of Columbus’ discovery.
But hey, since I’m a fair guy, below is a funny video about why Columbus Day is the celebration of a genocidal catastrophe. Yes, I think it’s funny. Unintentionally, very, very, very funny.
Columbus Day Genocide.
April 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
When did we get so emotionally and verbally constipated by political correctness that we can’t even teach history or speak of any accomplishments made about anglo-saxons in any way shape or form?
So sad. Its really so sad.
Very well said Ignat! The video is really hilarious in a dark humor kind of way.
April 8th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
well … i actually have to agree with them on this one
columbus was a viscious killer and slave trader.
if you want to celebrate Italians, have a leonardo da vinci day or a michaelangelo day or a enrico fermi day
April 8th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
lisab - what kind of man would it take to get on one of those little ships and keep a bunch of seamen in line to cross the ocean in 1492? Especially when most people thought they would sail right off the end of the earth?
I’ve heard the argument that he was a rough man. Seriously, it took rough men to do what he did. He probably cussed like a dog too and beat ship mates who got out of line. It was the way things were then. A gentle man couldn’t have gotten that ship and that crew across the Atlantic.
The problem is judging him by 20th and 21st standards is the point Ignat is making I think.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
yeah, he was tough.
he was also a brutal murdering slavetrader who raped and pillaged his way across the carribean.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
we don’t celebrate attila the hun day
or
ghengis khan day
or
viking day
or
mehmed II day
or
vlad the impaler day
etc.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
the ONLY thing we can do to these evil men is to treat them
as
evil
men.
i used to get this … ahem … cultural sensitivity crapola … all the time in the peace corps. “oh lisa … we should be sensitive to their culture … when the leaders steal from the poor we should judge them by their own standards.”
bullSh*^% …
i was in the OTHER peace corps … the one that gets things done — and maybe causes a few international incidents
i am still known by interpol as the kitty litter smuggler of southeast asian … try to explain to chinese border guards what kitty litter is (three kilos of white substance) when they themselves eat cats … and you get my point …
somebody has to teach them
April 8th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
So THIS is why we don’t have no holiday for Ronald Reagan.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
(You can take that either way. But knowing me I am sure you know how it was meant.)
April 9th, 2009 at 1:05 am
I read a book on Columbus. He WAS very brutal to the natives. I will take the side of the Brown students also.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:25 am
The students and faculty at Brown are correct. Columbus was not the hero we were taught in earlier history books. More recent history books are more truthful about him.
You can check out my video about Columbus (which is historically accurate) on youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT5cIeHPR-c&feature=channel_page
If the video seems to run too quickly for you to read the information, hit the pause/play button to stop it temporarily while you read. Then hit the pause/play button to start it up again.
Columbus did not discover America. The Vikings had settlements here (actually in North America) hundreds of years before. Columbus never even set foot on United States soil. He died thinking he had found a better trade route to India (hence First Nation people are called Indians).
Columbus engaged in genocide against the populations where he landed.
I urge everyone to research history and not rely on the inaccuracies you were taught years ago. There were lots of inaccurate stories in those history texts. My video above is a good starting place.