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Various anti-colonial interests are currently gathered on Low Plaza in celebration of Decolonization Day, an anti-Colonial rejoinder to this most colonial of federal holidays. And if you think that sentence was redundant, today’s event brings back that most recurring (and most annoying) of Columbianisms: poor planning! Come 1 PM, the decolonizers will have to share space with the Senior Class Council, which is giving you the opportunity to chuck pies at prominent soon-to-be graduates. “It is messed up,” one SPEAK representative said of the scheduling mess-up–although as a table of Ba’hai students pointed out, Decolonization Day is all about co-existence. When Bwog asked why they thought it important to participate in today’s events (which include a performance by rapper Hakim, from Channel Five), Makini Boothe, BC ‘08 replied that her faith believes in the oneness of everyone, and a “total transformation of human interaction.”
So, to recap: pies, pie-related public humiliation, free food, critiques of Columbus Day and the western colonial attitudes it represents, rap music and spiritual harmony! Right now at Low! And the weather is still pleasantly (or disconcertingly) spring-like…
-ARR
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24 Comments
@The girl the girl in that picture is the dumbest person I have ever met at Columbia
@I don't understand …how am I supposed to take a shit without my colon?
@i'm white but i can’t trace my ancestry more than that…
@you know who hates Columbus?
Indians. Real Indians. That fucker gave away our name.
Fucking stupid european.
@ignorant This is not your country. It is ours. We were always Americans, Mexicans included until you came over,killed my people and made text books full of lies. don’t even get me started on whiteness.
@FYI OK, not trying to be comprehensive here, but decolonization is a word, a symbol really, that means both grieving for, celebrating, and acknowledging a culture and ancestry that you never got a chance to participate in. If you are a descendant of African or indigenous peoples, the overwhelming likeliness is that you can’t trace your ancestry more than 3-5 generations. Your history just got wiped off the map. Think about it. I’m “black”, but I’m light skinned, which means that there are members of my extended family that I don’t know exist, and no way of even knowing what part of Africa I’m from, or the story of how a black ancestor and a white one got together and 150 years later my little sister has blue eyes. Since there is no concrete way of acquiring such knowledge, because of the phenomenon of colonization, it’s a concept (and day) to reflect on that, and ideally, take a look at your own life and society and try to prevent it happening to someone else. Decolonization in a teeny tiny nutshell
@thats true because all anti-racists are really just REVERSE RACISTS! decrying white white supremacy and continued ideological and practical racial discrimination is really just trying to get a free handout! be careful, they’re trying to take over our country! dont even get me started on the mexicans!
@i think those who identify as “white” or “caucasian” should from now on identify as “colonial-American.” On forms, if there is an other box, write that shit in.
@Thanks Bwog this is the most not-white thing you’ve covered this year! Great job!
@for crying out loud Look, Columbus was a douche. He was bad at math, bullshitted Ferdinand and Isabella, then lied to his crew. He was a pompous jackass who opened up the New World to a bunch of crazy, greedy bastards who liked to slaughter the “primitive” natives.
AT THE SAME TIME, we wouldn’t be here if Columbus hadn’t been such an idiot. Whether or not he was bad, he was important. I don’t understand what “decolonization” is supposed to mean. Are all the white people supposed to leave? Hell, a couple of Latino/Hispanic organizations are involved, and it was their ancestors doing a lot of the slaughtering! It’s wholly appropriate to remember the terrible crimes committed by the colonizers. At the same time, it’s absurd to grandstand and try to win points playing on guilt for something we had nothing to do with. I’m white. I don’t feel culpable for the crimes of people hundreds of years ago, and I don’t feel compelled to apologize for them. I go to a school NAMED FOR COLUMBUS. For good or ill he was important. We should recognize this. Columbus Day should be an opportunity for reflection on history, not a hagiographic glorification of a mass murderer, nor a bizarre attempt to make the beneficiaries of Columbus’ discovery feel guilty for something they were in no way responsible for. At an institution like Columbia I would hope we could have an honest and historically based dialog, but the ideological motivations and the blindness they bring have resulted in yet another case of bullshit slogans over real substantial analysis.
@columbus was a murderer. read his own sources on the voyages. get back to the texts, then make decisions.
@please please read a book. the glorification of columbus is dangerous because it is one of the key contributors to many of the common myths which bolster the popular conception of the spanish conquest as that of an inevitable victory by the superior ‘civilized’ spanish over the ‘barbaric’ natives. glorifying conquistadors, in this case columbus, as ‘great’ and ‘exceptional’ men implicitly implies this interpretation, which has been used to justify and explain seemingly endless accounts of european imperialism/expansion/genocide. note to conservatives, the simple, ‘common sense’ answer is not always correct. glorification of columbus is dangerous, not just because he was a ‘terrible racist’
@meh yeah… I’ve read some Zinn as well. Thanks for assuming I don’t read, though. I understand your point, I was just referring to the argument that columbus was responsible for the near-extermination of native americans. Glorification of columbus may be dangerous, but so is hyperbole.
@read a book read a book, read a mufuckin book!
@Bertrand Russell But indignation is still a bondage, for it compels our thoughts to be occupied with an evil world; and in the fierceness of desire from which rebellion springs there is a kind of self-assertion which it is necessary for the wise to overcome.
@Oh that's right Little known to many, Columbus Day has to do with RACISM! That’s right, racism, just like every other holiday celebrating a dead white man. Jesus, can’t we ever have a holiday without some crappy political statement? I wonder if the BSO is behind this…My perception of them would be significantly lowered if they were.
@george long live festivus!
@Good conspiracy theory. With your conspiratorial language, I’m sure BSO (and other Columbians) are concerned with your perceptions.
And how is the racism of Columbus Day “little known to many?” We basically exterminated an entire native population in order to create colonies. Can we undo that damage? No, but it’s important to remember both the admirable and shameful events in our country’s history.
Please think before you speak and before you start making accusations.
@meh The decimation of native americans happened over a couple hundred years, and were not a DIRECT result of Christopher Columbus.
@hm... How does the passage of time in any way dilute or lessen the atrocities? Columbus was a horrible man and we should acknowledge that.
@meh “Columbus was a horrible man and we should acknowledge that.”
OK… but unless he killed or organized the killing of 95% of native americans, the argument made above was a red herring.
@Uhm you’re thinking of “Conquest Day”, I think. You’ll note that this is not a real holiday. Columbus didn’t commit genocide. Let’s all just get over ourselves, eh?
@what up russeth didn’t you graduate?
@EAL remind me again what blasting hip-hop music on Low Plaza has to do with decolonization?