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Transform Columbus Day
Genocide is not a cause for Celebration
Created on 2006-02-16 21:53:40 (#9531209), last updated 2007-05-03
14 comments received, 6 comments posted
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Basic Info| Name: | endcolumbusday |
|---|---|
| Location: | Indian Land, United States |
| Website: | Transform Columbus Day Yahoo Group |
BioBefore Columbus sailed the Atlantic, he was a slave trader for the Portuguese, transporting West African people to Portugal to be sold as slaves. The Columbus legacy is steeped in blood, violence, and death.
The 1492 "voyage of discovery" is, however, hardly all that is at issue. In 1493 Columbus returned with an invasion force of 17 ships, appointed at his own request by the Spanish Crown to install himself as "viceroy and governor of [the Caribbean islands] and the mainland" of America, a position he held until 1500.5 Setting up shop on the large island he called Española (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he promptly instituted policies of slavery (encomiendo) and systematic extermination of the native Taino population.6 Columbus' programs reduced Taino numbers from as many as 8 million at the outset of his regime to about 3 million in 1496.7 Perhaps 100,000 were left by the time the governor departed. His policies, however, remained, with the result that by 1514 the Spanish census of the island showed barely 22,000 Indians remaining alive. In 1542, only 200 were recorded.8 Thereafter, they were considered extinct, as were Indians throughout the Caribbean Basin, an aggregate population which totaled more than 15 million at the point of first contact with the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, as Columbus was known.
This, to be sure, constitutes an attrition of population in real numbers every bit as great as the toll of 12 to 15 million–about half of them Jewish–most commonly attributed to Himmler's slaughter mills. Moreover, the proportion of indigenous Caribbean population destroyed by the Spanish in a single generation is, no matter how the figures are twisted, far greater than the 75 percent of European Jews usually said to have been exterminated by the nazis. Worst of all, these data apply only to the Caribbean Basin; the process of genocide in the Americas was only just beginning at the point such statistics become operant, not ending, as they did upon the fall of the Third Reich. All told, it is probable that more than 100 million native people were "eliminated" in the course of Europe's ongoing "civilization" of the Western Hemisphere.
WHY TRANSFORM COLUMBUS DAY?
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance actively rejects the celebration of Christopher Columbus and his legacy of domination, oppression, and colonialism. We also reject historical misconceptions regarding Columbus and his "discovery" of the Americas.
By saying NO to Columbus and his day we are saying YES to a new future of mutual respect, collaboration, and equality,
a future that respects...
=the rights of indigenous peoples
=the natural environment
=democratic & economic justice
=gender equity over global patriarchy
=free and equal speech over hate speech
WHY WE OPPOSE COLUMBUS DAY:
"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring." --- Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950
Who makes up the "Transform Columbus Day" Alliance? Over 80 autonomous Social Injustice Organizations.
SIGN A PETITION TO END COLUMBUS DAY
South Dakota replaced Columbus Day with Native American Day in 1990. It's time for the other 49 states to follow their example.
For more info, try the homepage of Transform Columbus Day Alliance.
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS JOURNAL, PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THIS POST FIRST!
The 1492 "voyage of discovery" is, however, hardly all that is at issue. In 1493 Columbus returned with an invasion force of 17 ships, appointed at his own request by the Spanish Crown to install himself as "viceroy and governor of [the Caribbean islands] and the mainland" of America, a position he held until 1500.5 Setting up shop on the large island he called Española (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he promptly instituted policies of slavery (encomiendo) and systematic extermination of the native Taino population.6 Columbus' programs reduced Taino numbers from as many as 8 million at the outset of his regime to about 3 million in 1496.7 Perhaps 100,000 were left by the time the governor departed. His policies, however, remained, with the result that by 1514 the Spanish census of the island showed barely 22,000 Indians remaining alive. In 1542, only 200 were recorded.8 Thereafter, they were considered extinct, as were Indians throughout the Caribbean Basin, an aggregate population which totaled more than 15 million at the point of first contact with the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, as Columbus was known.
This, to be sure, constitutes an attrition of population in real numbers every bit as great as the toll of 12 to 15 million–about half of them Jewish–most commonly attributed to Himmler's slaughter mills. Moreover, the proportion of indigenous Caribbean population destroyed by the Spanish in a single generation is, no matter how the figures are twisted, far greater than the 75 percent of European Jews usually said to have been exterminated by the nazis. Worst of all, these data apply only to the Caribbean Basin; the process of genocide in the Americas was only just beginning at the point such statistics become operant, not ending, as they did upon the fall of the Third Reich. All told, it is probable that more than 100 million native people were "eliminated" in the course of Europe's ongoing "civilization" of the Western Hemisphere.
WHY TRANSFORM COLUMBUS DAY?
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance actively rejects the celebration of Christopher Columbus and his legacy of domination, oppression, and colonialism. We also reject historical misconceptions regarding Columbus and his "discovery" of the Americas.
By saying NO to Columbus and his day we are saying YES to a new future of mutual respect, collaboration, and equality,
a future that respects...
=the rights of indigenous peoples
=the natural environment
=democratic & economic justice
=gender equity over global patriarchy
=free and equal speech over hate speech
"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring." --- Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950
Who makes up the "Transform Columbus Day" Alliance? Over 80 autonomous Social Injustice Organizations.
SIGN A PETITION TO END COLUMBUS DAY
South Dakota replaced Columbus Day with Native American Day in 1990. It's time for the other 49 states to follow their example.
For more info, try the homepage of Transform Columbus Day Alliance.
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS JOURNAL, PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THIS POST FIRST!
ConnectInterests (16):
activism, american indian movement, anti-columbus, columbus, equal rights, first nations hawks, genocide, history, indians, italian nationalism, native americans, protest, racism, slave trade, slavery, transform columbus day
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