US schooling made Columbus’s false discovery narrative official national history

Evidence

Christopher Columbus never set foot on the American mainland, but he ruled over our imagination as the “discoverer” of a nation long inhabited by indigenous peoples, and the earliest “pioneer” of a state that built its wealth on the backs of enslaved Africans. This history was made official in the textbooks we read when inducted into the American school system, and drilled even deeper into our heads each year we celebrated Columbus Day. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1103

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s ongoing work on how foundational national myths get institutionalized through education and ritual calendars.