Spring Break
Some cultural relativism necessary when looking at past
Egon Donnarumma
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Commentary
Last week, Brown University faculty voted successfully to abolish the holiday formerly known as Columbus Day from its calendar, replacing it with a "Fall Weekend." This stemmed from hundreds of Brown University students petitioning the university to stop observing the holiday citing "Christopher Columbus's violent treatment of Native Americans he encountered as inconsistent with Brown's values."
In an ironic twist of faux activism, the university did not change the actual date of the October vacation, because it wanted "to avoid inconveniencing staff whose children might have the holiday off." Thus, despite boycotting Columbus in name, the actual holiday that the rest of us will be observing will still be celebrated with a day off from school at Brown. Even though this 15th century man's values are inconsistent with Brown's enlightened student body, the date on everyone's calendar apparently is not. The trends of today's youth activism seem to stir up like a new YouTube video that will be watched repeatedly until the Internet browser takes too long to load and it begins to inconvenience updating your Facebook status. Convenience-based activism aside, this case suggests a lack of ability to disseminate historical context from cultural symbolism.
Should George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have their faces removed from Mount Rushmore for their ownership of slaves? Lewis and Clark paved the way for western expansion which led to further cruelty and exploitation to befall Native Americans, not to mention the near extinction of American bison. Does that warrant ignoring the great feats accomplished by such men? Lacrosse, invented by North American natives like the Cherokee and Mohawks, involved using the decapitated heads of their slain enemies in lieu of a ball. Should their values be judged by the standard of a society developed hundreds of years later? Jefferson is not remembered as a founding father of this nation for buying and selling fellow humans and declaring them his property. He is remembered for his role in the formation of the United States, like writing the Declaration of Independence, in spite of the act of slave ownership, which was deemed appropriate and legal, at the time. It is unfair to judge figures in absolute terms and to hold them to the values of a social system they didn't even know would come to exist.
In an ironic twist of faux activism, the university did not change the actual date of the October vacation, because it wanted "to avoid inconveniencing staff whose children might have the holiday off." Thus, despite boycotting Columbus in name, the actual holiday that the rest of us will be observing will still be celebrated with a day off from school at Brown. Even though this 15th century man's values are inconsistent with Brown's enlightened student body, the date on everyone's calendar apparently is not. The trends of today's youth activism seem to stir up like a new YouTube video that will be watched repeatedly until the Internet browser takes too long to load and it begins to inconvenience updating your Facebook status. Convenience-based activism aside, this case suggests a lack of ability to disseminate historical context from cultural symbolism.
Should George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have their faces removed from Mount Rushmore for their ownership of slaves? Lewis and Clark paved the way for western expansion which led to further cruelty and exploitation to befall Native Americans, not to mention the near extinction of American bison. Does that warrant ignoring the great feats accomplished by such men? Lacrosse, invented by North American natives like the Cherokee and Mohawks, involved using the decapitated heads of their slain enemies in lieu of a ball. Should their values be judged by the standard of a society developed hundreds of years later? Jefferson is not remembered as a founding father of this nation for buying and selling fellow humans and declaring them his property. He is remembered for his role in the formation of the United States, like writing the Declaration of Independence, in spite of the act of slave ownership, which was deemed appropriate and legal, at the time. It is unfair to judge figures in absolute terms and to hold them to the values of a social system they didn't even know would come to exist.
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