Christopher Columbus: Shifting perspectives

**Alundil** · 10-10-13, 08:31 AM

Christopher Columbus was awful (but this other guy was not) - The Oatmeal

**triggerhappy2005** · 10-10-13, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by Alundil

Christopher Columbus was awful (but this other guy was not) - The Oatmeal

Learned something new today.

**AetheLove** · 10-10-13, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by Alundil

Christopher Columbus was awful (but this other guy was not) - The Oatmeal

Good stuff. A little heresy makes nice spice in an otherwise bland day.

Æ

**Gumby** · 10-10-13, 10:20 AM

It's also Leif Ericsson Day for what that's worth. But neither one discovered anything. You can't discover a place when people already live there.

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**iLLusioN** · 10-10-13, 10:12 PM

Columbus is far from the only American "hero" that was actually a scum bag to anyone not writing American history books. He was probably the worst though.

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**Guyver** · 10-10-13, 10:25 PM

If any of that is true...wow.

**DJ Ms. White** · 10-10-13, 11:46 PM

Originally Posted by Guyver

If any of that is true...wow.

Some of the blame game is a stretch, but it is mostly true. The Catholic church was complicit in a lot of the shit that went down in the Americas. That being said, some of the members of the clergy who were there were all, "Umm...this doesn't seem to be the right thing to do." So, those guys fought for the rights of the natives, slaves, and those of mixed race.

The pecking order essentially went:
pure blooded "white" (as in from Spain)
White+native
native
white+black
black
black+native

When I learned about it, it reminded me very much of traditional Indian society (Hindu caste system). Those priests who stuck up for anyone who wasn't the top tier are part of the reason why Catholicism stuck even after the revolutions.