I, like I’m sure many others did as well, was not taught the extent of Columbus’s actions until much later in life. In fact, my school celebrated Columbus day with stories, parades, and games, which gave me very positive association with the man. When I got older, people told me the truth about Columbus and his actions, and it made me wonder why we teach such a warped history to kids. I understand the desire to protect children’s innocence, but is there a need to paint him as such a hero? I feel like there is definitely a way to introduce Columbus in a less celebratory way to kids so that when they do learn the full magnitude of his atrocities, they will not be shocked.

I think this distortion of history points towards a larger issue in our society, as Zinn focused on, that we manipulate information in order to convey certain messages. I think that people manipulate the message of Christopher Columbus because no one wants to embrace the idea of a murderer as the first explorer to find the land that we live on. I think it is similarly why we sugarcoat the story of Thanksgiving and settler-Native American relations in general. People are so proud of our origins as a nation that any evidence to taint that is reconfigured to make it “kid-friendly,” which as Zinn seems do argue, does more harm than good.

Hayter’s article reminded me of some of the things we had to read for my Justice & Civil Society class with Williamson. Just last week we read updates from the Office of Community Wealth Building in Richmond. One part of our reading went explained in-depth the history of segregation in Richmond and how the city and suburbs/counties were basically designed to keep black people poorer, contained, and socially lower than white people. I thought this recognition of systematic discrimination coming from a government office was a huge step in the right direction because we so rarely see that narrative in general, especially not from government officials or public figures. The part in the Office of Community Wealth Building’s report reminded me a lot of Hayter’s article, but it was just published in a more public way.