August 3, 1492, Columbus landed in what he thought was India on his trip to find a different route to the indies. Though he claimed to have been the first to have discovered the Americas there have been many ancient artifacts that show that the Vikings had in fact been the first people from the east to have discovered the land. What this day became known as was Columbus day to commemorate the discovery of the Americas but the events that happened after the discovery are anything to celebrate about.
Columbus and his crew were greeted by Lucayan-Arawak natives who he called Indians thinking that he was in fact in India. The natives offered the crew food and their knowledge is a nomadic tribe but Columbus used that to his advantage. In his own words, he called them stupid and ignorant for not knowing what a sword was and subsequently cutting themselves. In his journal, he accounts how he stole many of natives from their homes so that he may learn about the land and where their gold was hidden. As time progressed he stole children and women and offered them as rewards to people which lead to the creation of a slave trade and sex trafficking. The natives that were still fine had experienced many cases of abuse, such cases were documented in many accounts that say that he would cut off the hands or thumbs of these natives. Eventually, the last remaining full-blooded natives were wiped out in this genocide and replaced with slaves from Africa and their half native children. His atrocities didn't go unpunished and he was sentenced for his abuses in his later years. In recent times there have been efforts to change the name of Columbus day to natives day or something similar so that kids aren't taught to look up to a man who led the genocide and enslavement of an entire population.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kasum/columbus-day-a-bad-idea_b_742708.html
http://rapidcityjournal.com/lifestyles/people/top-atrocities-committed-by-christopher-columbus/collection_76ebb2b8-f63d-11e3-a137-001a4bcf887a.html#1
In the reader homework, we were to talk about how we made bad judgement towards other people or how we compared ourselves to other people, I believe everyone was able to give a response to that question. But, What I gathered from my response and other people's response, as well as the Columbus reading, it's that we've never really changed, and I think it's normal because everyone thinks this way.
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