Columbus Day and Oppression -- Against Humans, Against Animals, Against Nature
Published October 12, 2009 @ 07:56AM PT
I am no fan of Columbus Day. In the way of brief explanation, here is my sarcastic tweet on Columbus Day last year: "Happy Invade, Conquer, Enslave, Exploit, Infect, and Kill Day, everyone!" That our nation continues to celebrate this day and this man -- and this era and what humans did to fellow humans during it -- baffles me; it is insulting and embarrassing that we commemorate this with a holiday. But as Tracy Chapman says (see the end of this post), "The ghost of Columbus haunts this world." And the continued celebration also gives me something to think about today -- about our human obsession with conquering and controlling all that and whom we can, from land and water to our fellow humans and our fellow animals.
Have you ever read Daniel Quinn's Ishmael? I read it many years ago, followed shortly thereafter by Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, and these two books were instrumental in refining the way a very different version of me looked at the world and at the ways we humans try to own, control, and manipulate the natural world around us (these books ended up being the subject of my honors thesis in college). It took me a few years more to move beyond these books and make all the connections -- for example, to move beyond concern for and consciousness of primarily the natural world and environment and free-living animals to concern for the domesticated animals I thought of as food and beyond the idea that I could "respect" animals while still killing and eating them when I didn't have to. But these books were a start for me.
And I came to recognize, as many have, that the way we claim ownership and exert control over our fellow animals is related to the way we have, for centuries, done this to our fellow humans and to nature, in that the instincts come from the same place. The arrogant, oppressive, selfish, and imperialistic ways of thinking and living -- that many don't consciously recognize as driving the way we humans have moved, and continue to move, through the world -- are the basis as much for the way we think of and treat our fellow animals as they are for the way we think of and treat forests and oceans and the way we have, for so many years, thought of and treated our fellow humans.
Anyone and anything that is "other" is here for us to conquer, control, and find a way to use for our own benefit. Nothing and no one exists for its or his or her own purposes. What we see ("discover") and want, we take. As a general rule, we humans see ourselves not as a part of this world but as the rulers of it, as the rulers of all that and who supposedly need conquered, controlled, and tamed.
Away from this blog in the last few weeks, in my day job as a freelance editor, I've been copyediting an encyclopedia that's had me thinking even more than usual about some of these intersections and commonalities too. And though I've had time to read only one book since this blog launched last year (eek!), I finally ordered Marjorie Spiegel's important book The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery last week, which draws the connections between humans' oppression of nonhuman animals and humans' oppression of fellow humans. And I find myself also looking over often at Eternal Treblinka on my bookcase, Charles Patterson's powerful examination of the similarities between our treatment of nonhuman animals and the Holocaust (the latter being Patterson's area of scholarship), which I still haven't had time to get more than a fourth of the way through either. Both are books that I must find time to read.
On this Columbus Day, I suggest exploring some of these issues -- issues of oppression and violence against our fellow humans and against our other fellow animals and our natural world -- rather than being glad for the day off if you have it or jealous of others' day off if you don't. And if you have kids who are getting skewed, Columbus-the-hero history lessons this week, please consider giving them the truth. They'll be better-educated, more compassionate kids for it. I'll conclude by gathering up all the books mentioned here as well as a couple relevant Columbus Day pieces into a recommended reading list, followed also by a recommended listen:
Posts/Articles on Columbus Day
- Re-Remembering Christopher Columbus on Columbus Day from The Progressive (good post, but in the context of animals and oppression, take note of his casual comparison to "waiting to be boarded like cattle")
- Brown Students Protest Renaming of Columbus Day (some Republican students apparently still cling to what they were taught in first grade and object to others' efforts to be sensitive and compassionate -- lovely)
Books Mentioned in This Post
- The Dreaded Comparison, Marjorie Spiegel
- Eternal Treblinka, Charles Patterson
- Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
- Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
And finally, if you have never heard Tracy Chapman's "America" from the Where You Live album, this ill-conceived holiday is the day to experience it. Video of a live performance and the lyrics follow:
You were lost and got lucky
Came upon the shore
Found you were conquering America
You spoke of peace
But waged a war
While you were conquering America
There was land to take
And people to kill
While you were conquering America
You served yourself
Did God's will
While you were conquering America
The ghost of Columbus haunts this world
'Cause you're still conquering America
The meek won't survive
Or inherit the earth
'Cause you're still conquering America
America, America, America
You found bodies to serve
Submit and degrade
While you were conquering America
Made us soldiers and junkies, prisoners and slaves
While you were conquering America
America, America, America
Your hands are at my throat
My back's against the wall
Because you're still conquering America
We're sick and tired, hungry and poor
'Cause you're still conquering America
You bomb the very ground
That feeds your own babies
You're still conquering America
Your sons and your daughters
May never sing your praises
While you're conquering America
America, America, America
I see your eyes seek a distant shore
While you're conquering America
Taking rockets to the moon
Trying to find a new world
And you're still conquering America
America, America, America
The ghost of Columbus haunts this world
'Cause you're still conquering America
You're still conquering America
You're still conquering America
---
Photo uploaded to stock.xchng by smoku1976
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Comments (14)
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Author
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Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.
fuck yes.
Posted by Michael A. Weber on 10/12/2009 @ 08:15AM PT
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Excellent. . THANK YOU!!
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 10/12/2009 @ 08:28AM PT
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Amen. Columbus Day could/should be transformed into a day of mourning for past and present injustices and pledging to be more peaceful and respectful; i.e., evolving beyond the violent, callous, exploitative Columbus mentality.
Posted by Gary Loewenthal on 10/12/2009 @ 08:28AM PT
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Well put Gary. That is EXACTLY what it should be. :)
Posted by Michael A. Weber on 10/12/2009 @ 09:23AM PT
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I don't know if you've read much Isaac Bashevis Singer, but he was definitely one to compare the the slaughter of animals to the salughter of the Holocaust... http://www.ivu.org/history/northam20b/singer.html
Posted by josh musket on 10/12/2009 @ 10:00AM PT
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Yes, Singer's compassion is inspiring. His frank portrayals of butchering are sickening. As the IVU page notes, Patterson's title comes from a Singer story: "for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka".
Posted by El Rucio on 10/16/2009 @ 01:30PM PT
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I love this song. A political song that's actually catchy!
I need to read that book by Marjorie Spiegel, too.
Posted by Luella - on 10/12/2009 @ 12:16PM PT
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I was thinking about this earlier today when an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the 75th anniversary of the last Hawk Mountain slaughter caught my eye. The Hawk Mountain slaughter apparently used to be an annual tradition where people went up to the top of a mountain to shoot down and leave for dead hundreds of raptors during their annual migration, ostensibly because they ate "our" chickens and rabbits. Anyway, the comparison in the article seemed to make the boast that we have come so far in our compassionate treatment for animals, when in reality, we've made the tinniest of baby steps, sweeping most of the cruelties we visit upon non-humans under the rug. I can't help but think this is similar to the way we continue to visit discrimination on members of our own species. Perhaps we don't generally outright enslave, torture and maim, or murder large sections of our own species anymore (or at least don't find it acceptable to), but that certainly doesn't mean we are free from discrimination on any of the fronts we've fought it on before. Our exploitation is simply more refined, more behind the scenes, in most cases.
Posted by Jen Ruff on 10/12/2009 @ 02:05PM PT
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So absolutely right on!
Posted by Kim Johnson on 10/12/2009 @ 04:55PM PT
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Jen, that's pretty horrible, the Hawk Mountain slaughter. Churns my guts just thinking about it... but what you said about humans, I'd say it is definitely just a case of it being more hidden. From what I hear, human slavery is at an all time high. And as for torture and maiming... well, I think it only takes a little imagination to see how widespread that is. Our human society subsists on so much cruelty.
Posted by josh musket on 10/12/2009 @ 05:39PM PT
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I'm so grateful for the timing of your thoughts here, Stephanie. For one thing, I've been hemming and hawing about what to say about Ishmael to a friend with whom I've been sharing a few insights on animals. In his last email, he asked if I'd read Ishmael, which I hadn't, so I went out and bought it, read it, loved it, and cried over it. Now, instead of laboring over how to describe my feelings for it, I'll just send my friend YOUR essay and add "ditto." :-)))))
As for Eternal Treblinka, just this weekend I referred to it on my bookshelf -- re an Alex Hershaft quote. Have been meaning to read Marjorie's book, so now I have the incentive to do so. Have never heard of Ceremony; will check into that, too.
The Tracy Chapman lyrics are powerful; thanks for sharing.
Lastly, I was fascinated to see how the "conquering" mentality was in full-blown operation throughout the 130-year creation of our national parks (per the Ken Burns series on PBS). If it weren't for that noble, courageous, persevering John Muir plus a few other lesser-known but equally sparkling lights (and some great presidents who used the power of their pen to good advantage), our parks would have long ago been ruined by rapacious privateers (in logging, ranching, hunting, development, energy) who have tried their best to "conquer" the natural wonders and wildlife (often in the guise of sustainability and conservation).
Aside: I'm flummoxed by Teddy Roosevelt, who "loved" the bison, bighorn sheep, mule deer et al enough to sit by the hour just watching, with rapture, their peaceful interactions, but then would be overcome by what Muir called an "infantile need" to kill some of the animals as proof of his "manliness." Such schizophrenia defies logic.
Posted by Olivia White on 10/12/2009 @ 07:11PM PT
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What Michael and Gary said.
Posted by Kelly Garbato on 10/12/2009 @ 09:31PM PT
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P.S. Here's what Howard Zinn says about Columbus in his book, "A People's History of the United States" -- this section is a fast read, and well worth it:
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html
Posted by Olivia White on 10/13/2009 @ 02:45AM PT
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We don't have Columbus Day up here in the Great White North but our Turkey Killing Day Part One (Part Two is Xmas) falls on the same day. Still, history always favours the conquerors. I remember my martial arts teacher telling me that history labelled Magellan a great explorer too, but to the Filipinos he was a murderous pirate.
Just think about all the great "men of medicine" who experimented on animals (needlessly I might add) or even Teddy Roosevelt, known for his compassion towards that little bear cub (the inspiration for our teddy bears) but still an avid hunter/killer of other animals.
I read Ishmael many years ago too (followed by The Story of B, and My Ishmael) and the movie Instinct, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Anthony Hopkins, was inspired by it. These books definitely had an influence on me.
Thanks for your perspective too Stephanie!
Posted by Daniel Wilson on 10/14/2009 @ 07:41AM PT
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