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I never thought of anti Columbus sentiments as being anti white.

Pretty sure Columbus is the poster child for European conquering and conquistadoring and slaughtering of the innocent indigenous people. It’s mostly due to timing. Previous contact was nebulous, then the Spanish colonization followed quickly on the heals of Columbus. My “defense” of Columbus is, he didn’t call for that or lead the invasions. In today’s terms it would be unthinkable to land armed men on a nation of less developed people and start building forts, but that was normal at the time.

It was wrong, but Columbus didn’t invent the idea. So I’m not defending the actions, more like critiquing the bad history. By focusing on the one man, misunderstanding his motivations, and the entire culture that created him and supported him, we miss the opportunity to understand ourselves and our part in it. By getting Columbus wrong, we miss the critique of how richer nations should interact with poorer ones, and what made them richer in the first place. That critique is directly related to what is happening today.