Lies My Teacher Told Me Chapter 2

 I still recall the time I went on this Columbus-experience-boat when I visited Boston as a child. A man wearing a black costume with a hat on his wig escorted us on to a boat and started talking about 'his' discovery of a new land. I remember the rushing feeling I got that was quite similar to one that you get when meeting Mickey Mouse at disney land. You know he's not the real deal but still, you've heard about him only in stories and go through a starstruck like experience.

Although throughout my high school history classes I gradually found about how Columbus was not the very first person to discover America, I did not know about the horrific treatment the Native Americans were receiving and after reading the second chapter, I was completely distraught.

"Transform Columbus Day Alliance: Transform Columbus Day." Transform Columbus Day Alliance: Transform Columbus Day. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.

In actuality, what frightened me more than Columbus himself was the consequences of his actions. Columbus was one of the many to encourage slaverism and genocides of Native Americans and Africans. Those actions connect to the common belief of superiority amongst the white that still resides with us today. The idea of the whites being the 'leaders' is too common that we never think to question it. Well, maybe not never but still, it is as if that was the way things were when we became humans and the term 'race' was born. It is certainly a vicious circle. The textbooks don't give us the full story so we never realize that there is a hidden information that connects to the current situation that must be questioned. 

 To me, Christopher Columbus was much more than a historical figure. He was a symbol of the great America. Now, I finally realize that he is not the symbol but one of the factors that create this perhaps mythical 'great America.'