A high school in Fairfax County, Virginia, reportedly painted the historical account of Christopher Columbus as “mythology” in classroom instruction while highlighting examples of racism against Native Americans, including sports mascots.
The lecture materials from Langley High School in northern Virginia were first revealed by activist and journalist Asra Nomani in an op-ed for the Federalist, which wrote that the materials were used in a lecture to students last Tuesday as a primer for Indigenous People’s Day.
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Indigenous People’s Day is often used as a replacement for Columbus Day, a federal holiday that commemorates Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, the first European to land on the shores of the Americas in 1492. Critics claim that Columbus contributed to acts of genocide against the native people by European explorers, while the Italian American community celebrates the explorer as a cultural hero.
The materials at Langley High School cited directives from the Fairfax County school board in 2020 to change observance of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day and that European colonists had inflicted “500 years of oppression and violence” against Native Americans.
One slide featured a 2014 TED-Ed video by Alex Gendler that described Columbus as a “ruthless explorer” that should be judged by history as a “villian” in an imaginary trial.
Other slides in the presentation instructed students to ask a Native American how they preferred to be called and primers for discussions on controversial sports mascots such as the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins, two professional sports teams that changed their names out of concerns the names were offensive to Native Americans.
“Take a moment to reflect independently on the ways in which Native Americans are subject to racial discrimination and/or insensitivity and why that is commonplace in American society,” one slide said.
Nomani, in her report on slides, noted that framing of discussions about Columbus, “the stories of historical figures and immigrant groups deemed politically incorrect are erased.”
“The solution is not to erase communities and people — like the Italian American community to whom Columbus is an important figure — but to provide fair and honest representations, which are very much available to youth,” she wrote.
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A spokesperson for the school district said that there had been no complaints against the lesson and that “our school leaders welcome conversations with any Langley parents who have questions or concerns,” the Federalist reported.
