Everything is Racist, Vol. MMMDLXXXVI

Someone suggested to me this weekend that we ought to change Columbus Day to Leif Erickson Day, as Erickson got to America first and didn't engage in slavery or mass plunder. (While strictly true, it is surely the case that the Viking explorers avoided these things more from lack of personnel than from ethical objections to plunder or attractive female slaves.) It turns out that this has been suggested before, and there's an ongoing debate about it.

Being familiar with the charge against Columbus, I knew that the reason to replace him was his unacceptable treatment of Native Americans -- which, in the common parlance of today, is "racist." (I'm not sure that the concept of race as such was very well-established in Columbus' day, though the concept of 'non-Christians subject to intense violence as necessary to control them' was one regularly employed by his patrons and their Spanish Inquisition.) It turns out that the advocates of Leif Erickson are also charged with racism by our contemporaries in journalism.
In 1892, the U.S. celebrated a Columbian centennial: the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s journey to the Americas. At the time, the country’s recognition of him was a source of pride for many Italian Americans and Italian immigrants. But Scandinavian immigrants and Americans of northern European descent wanted to celebrate Erikson instead.

This was a time of fervent anti-immigrant and anti-Italian sentiment in many parts of the U.S., and “the idea that there might be a story where the first Europeans to America are not southern Europeans” was appealing, says JoAnne Mancini, senior history lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and author of “Discovering Viking America.”

...Erikson’s nationality wasn’t the only thing that made some people favor him over Columbus. Mancini says that in the 19th century, Americans “who were not Catholic were really paranoid about the Catholic Church.” Some Protestants went so far as to suggest that Columbus was part of a Roman Catholic conspiracy to suppress the recognition of earlier Norse explorers.

It’s not clear whether many people bought into this conspiracy, but the rise of Columbus in the late 19th century did motivate anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Americans to argue for the national recognition of Erikson over Columbus.
At some point we are going to have to figure out how to forgive our ancestors, or there will be no living with anyone.

Anyway henceforth I'm in favor of Leif Erickson Day as the standard mid-October holiday in honor of great explorers. Columbus really was terrible, Leif wasn't for whatever reason, and the Viking heritage is beautiful and worth celebrating.

9 comments:

ymarsakar said...

At some point we are going to have to figure out how to forgive our ancestors, or there will be no living with anyone.

To do that, they need a spiritual revival. Not a christian revival, mind you.

A Course in Miracles and other tools have been "downloaded" into human minds and hands, to aid with that. People don't even know what the word "forgive" means in terms of spiritual, akashic, and blood matters.

ymarsakar said...

I also don't feel the need to worship the Blood and the ancestors. I respect their traditions, in so far as it goes, but that is it.

My role model is not Columbus, the Spanish Inquisition, or Erickson.

My work is the work of the elohim, not of humanity or mortals.

My role models are not mortals. I do not copy the traditions and teachings of men or women.

People react predictably: That's really arrogant, Ymar.

Yea I know. Btw are you gonna vote for Trum again?

: Yup, America First, victory at all cost. Btw, can you like tone it down, you talk like you are better than the rest of us.

Hahah. Omg.

Sometimes, they need to send in a guy like Trum, because this place is just... you know, liable to stone you to death because they don't like what you say, so you got to push through it like Trum pushes through PC.

E Hines said...

Anyway henceforth I'm in favor of Leif Erickson Day as the standard mid-October holiday....

Nah. Erikson's discovery wasn't followed up on in any meaningful way. Columbus' was, ultimately to the economic, political, and liberty benefit of the whole world.

That's enough for me to keep the Columbus Day national holiday celebration. 'Course, no one is stopping anyone from celebrating Erikson's achievement of being the third European to land in North America (if some accounts are accurate).

Eric Hines

Assistant Village Idiot said...

E. Hines is correct that Columbus was a true turning point, which Ericson was not. An accident of history, perhaps, but still true.

The Vikings were one of, if not the great slavers from 900-1100 AD. In fact, my mtDNA suggests that I am descended from a captured Mediterranean or Iranian female slave brought to central Sweden via Russia. I admit they seem to have gotten over that by 1500.

Tom said...

I'm not sure the charge against Columbus the man should be taken all that seriously. Howard Zinn played a big role in the attack on Columbus and he's not the most reliable historian.

What the Spanish who followed Columbus did should not be laid at his feet, in my opinion.

On the other hand, we clearly need more Viking-themed days, because Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are not enough, clearly. :-)

Anonymous said...

If by discover, you mean observe, document, publicize, and make known, then Columbus gets full credit, like the Curies and Isaac Newton. Yes, the Vikings and Basques reached the New World earlier, but not enough people read the Sagas for them to be effective publications. And the Basques had a vested commercial interest in keeping quiet.

Plus I'm a contrarian. Let's keep Columbus and recognize that he was skilled and brave, just not modern (and a lousy administrator and manager.)

LittleRed1

ymarsakar said...

https://ourwayisthehighway.wordpress.com/2019/02/14/the-last-magician-isaac-newton-and-the-quest-for-immortality/

Some stuff about good old Isaac that people didn't know about. Whether it is good or bad... well that depends on your personal biases.

Towering Barbarian said...

"Some Protestants went so far as to suggest that Columbus was part of a Roman Catholic conspiracy to suppress the recognition of earlier Norse explorers."

As someone who is also Protestant permit me to observe out loud that they must have been smoking some real good weed since Leif Erickson was also Catholic. This sounds as though it might be at the same level of logic as Baconians who insist that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare. >_>

- S.P.M.

Tom said...

A defense of Columbus and Columbus Day