The Daily Signal - What’s in a Name? Rewriting History on Columbus Day

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

In a decision representing the triumph of anti-Columbus sentiment, President Joe Biden announced Friday he plans on officially commemorating Indigenous Peoples Day, rather than Columbus Day, on Monday. The controversy surround Christopher Columbus has spanned decades. To some, Columbus serves as a symbol of bloodthirsty colonial expansion, a petty tyrant hellbent on pillaging native lands. To others, Columbus is a misunderstood and unjustified target of anti-American scorn who should be praised for his tolerance and kindness towards indigenous people. Jarrett Stepman, a Daily Signal contributor and author of the book "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past," falls squarely in the latter camp. Stepman joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the long-running controversy surrounding the much maligned Columbus and to share the true story of the man who discovered America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Jarrett's A, Daily Signal contributor and author of the book The War on History, The Conspiracy to rewrite America's Past. He joins this special episode to talk about Columbus Day and why Columbus isn't as bad as you've probably been led to believe. Enjoy the show. Our guest today is Jarrett Stepman, a contributor for The Daily Signal, as well as author of the book, The War on History, the conspiracy to rewrite America's past. Jared, welcome to the show. Oh, thank you so much for having me. Yeah.

So let's talk about a man that is in absolutely no way controversial, Christopher Columbus. Let's just get an obvious question out of the way before we start. Was Columbus a racist villain like the left claims that he is? No, it's really amazing the kind of one-dimensional caricature that Christopher Columbus has become. What's really remarkable about it is at one time in American history, Columbus kind of became this universal symbol of America, even though he wasn't really an American proper. Obviously, his discovery of the new world happened long before the United States even existed. Christopher Columbus really became a universal symbol in the United States for the new world, for what this country was, for immigrants, for immigration, even though, again, he wasn't really an immigrant, but he stood, I think, for many of those.

who came to the new world thereafter, it's amazing how much that reputation within just a generation has entirely collapsed to the point where if you ask a young person today, even those who may be somewhere on the conservative side of the spectrum, they probably won't have anything good to say about Columbus. They'll repeat the line that you just said that, oh, well, wasn't he a racist? Didn't he abuse Native Americans? Wasn't he terrible? And I think that's that that's that that shows kind of the direction of our civilization. It shows how history is taught in America. And it really shows the influence of a lot of, I think, left-wing ideologues who have had enormous influence on our culture, on our academic institutions, and certainly on our K-to-12 schools, where most

people learn about history for the first time. You mentioned that there are a lot of these left-wing ideologues who are anti-Columbus. So during the rioting during the summer, last year, a lot of statues of Columbus were very popular targets for vandals and iconoclast. There would be these stories. They would tear these statues down or they would graffiti them with anti-Columbus propaganda. Why is Columbus in particular such a popular target for these types of people? Yeah, it's a funny thing, right? I mean, obviously many said that this statue, taking down statue movement started with Confederate statues.

Christopher Columbus has nothing to do with the Confederates. Why is he such a target? And I think for me and I've described this as the generation of Howard Zinn coming of age. Howard Zinn was a famous, or I'd say infamous left-wing historian whose people's history of the United States is an extremely popular high school textbook. It's extremely popular among activists. Howard Zinn, who was actually a member of Communist Party USA, crafted a narrative about America's existence that all the bad things that are, exist in the new world, the United States, or because of Columbus's discoveries, he brought Western culture and capitalism, something that he hated very much. And so Columbus became a symbol

of this transformation in the new world. He became a symbol of the capitalist economy of the United States, even though he was very much divorced. Certainly, I don't think Columbus himself would have said that I came to, the Americas, to voice capitalism on the new world or anything like that. But this was really a caricature that was created by Zinn and other left-wing historians that has taken root. This idea that America from its very beginning was born of a rotten seed that Columbus ushered in, all the terrible things that they know about America and why it's a racist, awful country built on capitalism. And so Christopher Columbus, it should be no surprise that his statue was among the top targets of activists. He was really a symbol for that.

He was really a symbol for America's beginnings, our origins. I think that's why we talk about a larger war on history. Columbus is a prime target. I think it's deeply saddening to me to see so much destruction of Columbus. I think that it's sad to see oftentimes very little defense of his legacy and reputation and that many cities around the country that, you know, of course our country in many regards owes much to Columbus's discovery, we wouldn't exist without it. But really the tributes from generations of Americans who saw Columbus as a symbol of what the country stands for, of taking a bold

a truck out into the wilderness or in the ocean in the case of Columbus, a symbol of immigrants. And to a certain extent, inclusion and diversity and tolerance, Columbus was very much a symbol for especially Catholic, Italian immigrants at one time in America's history. There was a of prejudice against. But all these things are forgotten because of the left-wing narrative about what America stands for, about capitalism, about our country. And I think that that is why Columbus is a major battleground in the culture war. And his destruction, as far as this holiday goes and his statues, is representative of how our culture has changed. Given that you wrote the book, The War on History, and have a very strong understanding of

this kind of war on history from the left about figures. like Columbus, can you maybe give some of the left's most egregious lies surrounding Columbus and then correct the record for us? Well, again, as I went to before, the idea that Zinn tried to characterize Columbus is this kind of greedy capitalist character who came to the new world to make money is, I think, one of the more silly caricatures of Columbus. To a certain extent, like all people, he was motivated by financial. gain in this world, but especially if you read through his actual justification for making the

voyage across the ocean, there was a huge religious component that is often forgotten this. Columbus was very much a man of his world, a medieval Europe, who was very devout Christian, who wished to bring Christianity across the globe. I think that's maybe another reason why he is so hated by the left. The idea that he was simply motivated by, by, greed in making money, it's just not true, especially when you look at the historical evidence. There's a great book by historian named Carol Delaney that basically entirely debunks this. It says that his motivations were mostly religious. He wanted to open up a route to what he saw at the time as Asia ended up making a far greater discovery. I think this idea that Columbus

was particularly abusive to the native population is. almost in some ways the opposite of true. I mean, if anything, yes, many of the conquistadors who certainly came after Columbus were quite brutal in their rule, as they had been in Europe before then, that the world at the time was a very brutal place. But Christopher Columbus, if anything, was among the most tolerant of those who came to the new world. In fact, even punished members of his crew who he thought had treated the natives unfairly and unjustly. And unfortunately, Zinn in his books went through a lot of creative editing to try to make Columbus sound like he was saying negative things about the Native Americans he encountered. But oftentimes the opposite was true.

And I think it's really one of the nasty lies about history that Columbus was somehow this horrible racist enslaver when the truth in many cases is very much the opposite. And it's really, it's a horrible maligning of the character of a man, certainly not a perfect man who had many issues with his leadership, did not always act justly in every situation. But certainly does not deserve the title of being the Hitler of the 1490s, which I think he's often been characterized as. And certainly does not deserve to have his incredible achievement, which was discovering the new world, creating very much the modern world that we know. know today through his incredibly bold and daring journey across the ocean into the total unknown, really an incredible achievement that almost didn't happen. There were so many mutinies and whatnot along his way. It was an incredibly difficult journey. To undermine this achievement and to paint him as simply a monster is deeply unfair to the legacy of a man that I think deserves to be well known

by not just Americans, but people throughout the new world and the whole world. I really want to dive into what you've been talking about, Howard Zinn and his sort of impact on the way that Columbus is viewed today and sort of the impact of what people like Columbus represent. So you wrote a piece for the Daily Signal titled, D.C. is abolishing Columbus Day. Here's the truth about Columbus. And you wrote this about the villainization of Columbus by the far left. So this is what you write. Far left historian Howard Zinn, in particular, had a huge impact on changing the minds of a

generation of Americans about the Columbus legacy. Zinn not only maligned Columbus, but attacked the larger migration from the old world to the new that he ushered in. It wasn't just Columbus who was a monster, according to Zin. It was the driving ethos of the civilization that ultimately developed in the wake of his discovery, the United States. So we've sort of talked about how Columbus's villainization by the left is indicative of larger patterns by these leftist groups to sort of divide America and say that America is a bad place to be. be. But could you dive a little deeper into the overall Marxist ethos of anti-Americanism that kind of comes from this vilification of Columbus? Yeah, I think one of the interesting aspects of the kind of

anti-Columbus movement is how is so insistent on, look, of course, we have today, many want to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day. And it's become, it was at one time, it was somewhat of a marginal movement that started in Berkeley in 19th. 1992 is where the start. Now it's almost everywhere. But noticed in this discussion of having an Indigenous People's Day, there's really no argument from that side of having both. I mean, there's never an argument to say, you know, why can't Americans who believe in like they do, and diversity, equity, and inclusion include both Columbus and indigenous people in their celebration of what they are. Certainly, both of these things have made enormous contribution

to what we are as a country. But in their estimation, it's a zero-sum game. They need to destroy the legacy of Christopher Columbus to usher in this new, wonderful utopia that I think that they see in our future. They need to destroy America's horrible, awful racist past to usher in something entirely new on its ashes. And I think that's really the mentality when it comes to Columbus. Columbus is a symbol of what traditional America is really about, something they need to destroy, they need to malign. They even need to lie about and treat unfairly. I think in the case of Columbus, there's no doubt that the straight-up lies about Columbus from Howard Zinn have had enormous impact. It's not about finding the truth about history. It's about creating certain narratives, creating heroes and

villains, and many times in opposition to the heroes that we once had in our country's history. And so I think this is really important to understanding why Columbus has become such a target. He needs to be a symbol of all that's bad, that the activists in the street can attack, that they can lash out against. He needs to be a symbol of the target for those attacks based on their narrative, that they're going to replace that and create a new America on its ashes. And so I think that's why the fight over Columbus is so important. You'll never hear from these left-wing activists, this idea that we can celebrate both these things.

It'll always be one of the other. And that's a huge component of what I would call the war on history in this country. I mean, now that we're talking about Columbus Day, it is right around the corner. Would you be able to give us a brief history of the holiday and then when it started to become a problem, like we were discussing people starting to push it away in favor of things like Indigenous People's Day? Yeah, Christopher Columbus has always been a symbol of America. I mean, even this idea of Columbia, the goddess Columbia, being a symbol of the United States, there was a very famous poem at the time of the founding by Phyllis Wheatley, who had been a slave, who wrote this incredibly impactful poem about Columbus and the goddess Columbia being a symbol of America, George Washington, loved this poem. And so Columbus really, even early in our history, became this symbol of the new world, the discovery. It said so much about America,

even though this discovery predated the United States by hundreds of years and really led more to the Spanish colonization of America rather than the British, he was nevertheless a symbol, I think, of the new world. A distinct character who was a symbol of both the old world and the new at the same time, which is very much what America was, what it was created out of. And through our history, his legacy was very important. I think actually rose in prominence, especially in the late 19th century. In 1892, there was a huge push to celebrate Christopher Columbus, obviously capturing the enthusiasm over the anniversary.

And also, I think, as a way to celebrate, especially at the time Italian Catholic immigrants. I mean, this was a big issue in the 19th century, was the, battles between, I think, Protestant and Catholic America about immigration at the time. Many Italians were not looked upon favorably. In fact, that year, the worst lynching in American history took place in New Orleans of Italians who were lynched in jail in New Orleans. So I think there was a large national push to say, you know, America is not just one thing. It's a few things. And Christopher Columbus is a part of our legacy. We're going to celebrate him. I think many Italian Americans, in particular, embrace. him as a symbol saying, you know, we're Americans too. We love this country. We're proud of the fact that Columbus' discovery led to the creation of the United States. And Columbus became this

national symbol. I mean, there was definitely opposition in those days. I find it quite amusing that some of the biggest pushback, certainly in the 19th and early 20th century, was more about the Ku Klux Klan that didn't like Christopher Columbus. They saw Columbus as this immigrant, Catholic hero that shouldn't be celebrated in the United States, which was a Protestant country. Columbus Day was something that was scorned by the Klan. But I think in general, American society came to fully adopt him as a unifying symbol of our country.

I think that side very much lost those debates. I think the idea that the founders themselves, of course, celebrated Columbus. Columbus was so much a part of what we are. So I think the Klan's arguments about Columbus entirely lost. And he became a symbol of the United States. It's why you see statues absolutely everywhere, especially there are many that were created in the mid, mid-20th century, certainly by many of the Italian immigrants and descendants of Italian immigrants who, again, saw him as such a symbol of their experience in America. So I think through its long history, Columbus has been very much a uniting figure, an important one, and understanding something about ourselves. I mean, he was somebody who was celebrated by Ronald Reagan in a speech saying, celebrating his journey to the new world being about that bold move to strike out into the wilderness, which I think is something of how we see ourselves.

We are the pioneers. And I think we've always seen ourselves that way. And the first pioneer in our history was Columbus in many ways. And so I think that's been a great tradition for this country. It shows that a real tradition of inclusion, a real tradition of Americans coming together to celebrate a uniting figure like this. And I think, again, it would be incredibly shameful in the future if we continue this course of jettisoning Christopher Columbus from that pantheon. I think he is an important part of what makes us us. We've discussed briefly some of the reasons why Indigenous People's Day has been selected.

as a replacement for Columbus Day. I mean, you very specifically said you cannot have both. It must be Columbus Day is jettisoned to replace it with Indigenous People's Day. Why specifically Indigenous People's Day? Why not something along the lines of like America Day or some kind of concept that's a little more unifying? Again, it goes into their modern, especially, you know, how the left sees the world. This is what they see as part of this kind of general anti-racism movement. You have to not only, you have to condemn the white supremacy of the past. Christopher Columbus is a symbol of the white supremacist American history where we're ushering in a new future.

I think it's really interesting, especially, you know, I think they're calling this indigenous People's Day in sort of as a counter to Columbus and the discovery of America. But, and I do wonder how much through our own history, you know, many of those indigenous people would see themselves in the slide. It makes me think about one of my favorite Native American leaders, a man named Plenicus of the Crow tribe, really a truly great American. He was a hero in the late 19th century, early 20th century, talked about how the American flag was this great symbol that his tribe would always uphold the American flag. Many of his warriors fought in World War I. And I think about that.

This was a man who was a Native American and an American who was extremely proud of the American. flag. He's proud to be part of this tradition, this larger tradition that includes people from many different backgrounds into the great story of the United States. Indigenous People's Day is a left-wing creation to pit Americans against each other. It's not to build diversity, equity, inclusion, the words of the revolution for the left. It's really to destroy one side at the expense of another. And I think that's really what this is about. It's really not. not to necessarily celebrate the shared things that we have as Americans, but to distinguish those who are the elect and those who are the cursed.

And I think that's what's so deeply pernicious about this exchange of Columbus Day for Indigenous People's Day. It's not about not celebrating Indigenous people. I think that's a good thing. I think that's an important thing. I think much of the story of Native American contribution in American history deserves to be restored and deserves to be placed at the forefront. But that shouldn't happen at the expense of other parts of American history. It shouldn't happen at the expense of Christopher Columbus,

whose discovery of America is the reason why we're even here, why there even is the United States. And to dismiss that, I think, is silly. And I think those who are especially on the hard left understand why they're doing this. This is not just being done willy-nilly. There's a concerted effort to change the narrative about the United States. States and fundamentally change what this country stands for. I always find when we talk about topics like the left's push to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day, it's more based

on performative wokeness than actually materially improving the lives of Indians and Native Americans. Does that kind of resonate with you, that idea that there's really nothing behind this? It's more performative. Oh, I absolutely think that. In fact, that's something that I very much mentioned in my book, The War on History, is that it is performing. We look at just the discussions over the Washington Redskins, now the Washington football team, and how much that was really a creature of Washington, D.C., an activist. Many Native Americans around the country actually saw the Redskins name is something that they were proud of. They were happy to see a Native Americans celebrating on a national football team. And I think a lot of this debate is simply taken over by

activists. It's a performative culture that I think extends from the college campus culture in the United States. It's really a performative thing for the woke ruling class to feel like they are at the forefront of moral reform, that they are going to show us the path, our new glorious woke future to cleanse the sins of all that icky stuff about traditional America. And I think you're absolutely right in the sense that there's a lot of meaningless to this. I mean, meaninglessness to this. I mean, there's no, you know, what are we going to actually gain by tearing down these symbols of our past, by tearing down Christopher Columbus? Are we really ending racism in America? Is that really going to end the issues we have had with race in

this country? I think they see it as part of this kind of emotional kind of, for them, maybe a quasi-religious experience to kind of purge American history and to make themselves feel good. And I think that's part of the reason why it's ultimately an incredibly destructive ethos, this iconoclasm. It doesn't lead to anything positive. It doesn't lead to a better, less racist future. If anything, it actually leads to a worse, more racist future, where we're more conscious of racial differences and pitted against one another, which I think for some, is the intent. As we start to wind down on this interview, it sounds like there is a popular conception that is being pushed by the left of Columbus as a racist, horrible villain,

like, larger than life monster that isn't really accurate. So if our listeners want to get a better, more accurate understanding of who Columbus the man really was and his impact on history, where it would be a good place to look? Yeah, you can check my book, The War on History, the conspiracy to rewrite America's past. I actually would suggest other works if one wants to go even deeper. There's a great book written at Mid-Century by a great historian named Samuel Elliot Morrison, who was a naval historian who wrote a series of books on Christopher Columbus. They're big, thick books.

But he really gives a detailed narrative of the incredible voyage that Columbus took, why he was so important, really details the entire man's life. I think in quite an illustrative way, he's a great writer, and I highly recommend his books if you really want to deep dive. If you want just a straight rebuttal of the lies of Howard Zinn, I would say there's another great book published about the same time as mine, literally called Debunking Howard Zinn by Mary Graber. The book gets a lot into Christopher Columbus because, of course, Howard Zinn spent a lot of time attacking Columbus, and I think that's a good place to go, especially for those, Maybe you're a student or you have kids who are in class right now and they're hearing a lot of lies about Christopher Columbus.

I think that's actually, that's an excellent place to start, especially if they're getting assigned a people's history of the United States, which is filled with lies. So I think those would be a good place is to go if you want to give yourself an education about Columbus and about why he's under attack and why we should still celebrate him. great stuff and of course if you want to check out jarritt's work you can go to the daily signal dot com lots and lots of lots of stuff about columbus there so that was jared stepman contributor for the daily signal as well as author of the book the war on history the conspiracy to rewrite america's past gerrit thanks so much again for your time thank you very much for having me the daily signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the heritage foundation it is executive produced by virginia allen and kate trinko sound design

by Lauren Evans, Mark Geiney, and John Pop. For more information, please visit DailySignal.com.