Rethinking an Anniversary

Currently at Harvard University we celebrate three holidays which are named after individuals (including President's Day which combines the holiday of two individuals). A holiday is commonly defined as a day of celebration. Therefore, an American national holiday should celebrate the achievements of the individual in relation to American society.

However, this celebration cannot be limited to blindly paying homage to that person, especially at an institution of higher learning. We should take the time to study the achievements of the person who the holiday is named after. It is in this spirit that the Minority Student Alliance (MSA) sponsors the observance of Columbus Day on Widener stems this afternoon. This observance of the holiday consists of a silent vigil from 12 p.m. until 1 p.m. and will be followed by a speakout by student leaders of the sponsoring organizations.

The vigil will take another look at the Columbus Day holiday. When asked about Christopher Columbus' most important achievement, most people think of the obvious, his so-called "discovery" of America. Every American schoolchild can point to the teacher that told him of Columbus' discovery of America, and the person that taught him the famous nmenonic device "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." I can remember seeing the painting of Columbus meeting with native Americans on a beach in a history book and just placing that in my mind as Columbus' discovery of America.

This picture alone can underscore the idea of the misunderstanding of Columbus' arrival in the Americas. When Columbus arrived on Hispano in 1492 there were people there to greet him. How could he discover a land that was already inhabited? This is a perfect example of the African proverb, until the lions has historians, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

Columbus' discovery has always been glorified by European scholars, scholars of the people who most benefited from the voyage of Columbus. As an enlightened community, it is time to look at Columbus' arrival on this continent from different perspectives, so that we can come to a more accurate and complete telling of this story.

We should start discussing the reasons for Columbus' trip to America. He was not on a noble excursion to search for new lands and different peoples. In Europe, it was the period of expansion. The Pope had just divided the world between the Spanish and Portuguese. Columbus was looking for a quick way to the Indies that would make the monarchs of Spain and himself very rich.

Columbus didn't look to the Indians as equal trading partners but a people who could be used to send gold and other valuables back to the Spanish treasury. This is why he immediately put the native populations to work. Columbus and his men mistreated the native population to the point that the Spanish government had to appoint a guardian of the Indians, a priest named Bartolome de las Casas.

The decimation come to a such a point that in 1511, de las Casas approached the king to request that he allow Africans to be brought into America for the sole purpose of work. This act set the precedent for the enslavement of African peoples throughout America. So Columbus' "discovery" led to the exploitation of the native population to the point that people from Africa were taken to fulfill the greed of the Europeans.

Therefore, Columbus' "discovery" of the Americas was, at best, a lucky mistake, and at worst, the beginning of the racial inequality that persists today in modern manifestations of racism in American society.

The idea that many people have of the discovery of America as a man finding new land is for the most part dreadfully inaccurate. We strive to inform people of the true ramifications of Columbus' discovery. The Minority Student Alliance stands together to observe the deaths of those exploited and killed by the coming of Columbus and to voice different perspectives of the effects of Columbus' "discovery" of America.

E. Franklin Miller '94 is the Black Student Association's representative to the MSA. The MSA would like to invite all members of the Harvard community to learn more about Columbus Day at their vigil today. Come wearing black.