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Book: Fabricating Origins

Chapter: 17. Coloring Columbus

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.24339

Blurb:

I am the parent of three children, two of whom are elementary school-aged. As such, I have now twice been handed an line-drawn image of Christopher Columbus that they each have dutifully colored, which appears to be a requisite kindergarten activity at our local public school. Because of the historical evidence that details Columbus’s systematic torture and murder of the peoples whose lands he colonized, I have always found this exercise something akin to coloring a picture of Saddam Hussein or some other such figure.

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