Personally, this reading made me upset. It’s really sad to read about all the horrific things that were done to the natives. The natives were nothing but nice to the colonizers and they took completely took advantage of them. To see that they murdered millions of people and destroyed cultures all because they wanted to is disgusting. It makes me wonder a lot about the nature of white people. It also makes me wonder about religion. Colonizers use religion to justify almost every genocide that they commit which makes me question the purpose of religion. I also thought about how today the media calls certain Muslim groups terrorists for simply doing what the colonizers did. I think religion can be very dangerous and is used when people have no real answer for the terrible crimes they commit.
I think the second article was really interesting. I had no idea that the African Americans were so present in the government during this time. Although, I’m not surprised. History hs a tendency to be whitewashed but I think It’s very important that children are taught this so those little black children aren’t discouraged. It is beneficial to have role models that look like you.
I agree, it is horrible reading about these things, but necessary. If we didn’t read about them, then we would be subject to the oversimplification that the authors talk about. As a side not, saying “they were nothing but nice to the colonizers” isn’t completely true. They also fought and tried to kill the colonizers (as one would do if your land was being invaded). I also think about how powerful the “excuse” of religion can be for people’s actions. Terror groups in the Middle East use similar reasoning for their horrific actions.
I like your connection to the Muslim terrorist groups, that is something that I had not thought of. It is interesting to think of what society choosing is acceptable versus not, even when the actual actions in question are so similar. It is even crazier to think that we are taught these things at such a young age. There is no good reason for justifying the harm Columbus caused, and it was definitely a form of terrorism but people are so reluctant to accept that.
I agree, I think that the way that American history is taught in schools needs to be changed because it mainly focuses on the white rich men who were the so called heroes of our country. The US is supposed to be a melting pot where it does not matter what you look like or where you come from, and I think that it would be great to have kids learn about how present African Americans were in our government during that time.
I agree the reading was incredibly hard to go through. To see them attempt to fight back time and time again only to lose was disheartening, as it led to the the Europeans only becoming more brutal.