It's Not Your Country Any More Analysis

Annotated Bibliography

HITCHMOUGH, SAM. "'It's Not Your Country Any More'. Contested National Narratives And
The Columbus Day Parade Protests In Denver." European Journal Of American Culture
32.3 (2013): 263-283. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

This essay presents an unbiased, detailed view of the name change debate. The author, American Studies lecturer Sam Hitchmough, provides a critical look at how Americans have viewed Christopher Columbus throughout the centuries. He addresses the issue from the perspective of Italian Americans, Native Americans, and those who fall under neither category. His essay does what many other essays regarding the name change debate fail to do: acknowledge the majority of Americans who celebrate
Robertson, an assistant professor at Colorado College, an idea known as “legitimized racism” is fleshed out. She explains how blatant racist actions toward Native Americans are often legitimized and justified by the federal government, unlike the color-blind racism other minorities face. For example, while saying the n-word is typically seen as unjust, referring to Native Americans as “redskins” is socially acceptable due to the normalization of the word through sports teams like the Washington Redskins. Robertson eventually brings legitimized racism to the context of Columbus Day and interviews Doris, an Abenaki woman, about her thoughts on the issue. Doris makes an interesting point when she tells Roberston that Columbus Day is “just another opportunity to remind Natives that their homelands have been basically...destroyed”. Robertson adds to this by noting that Columbus Day forces Native Americans to face the “massive, recurring trauma of Western Colonialism” that so often triggers them emotionally, yet still manages to escape any critical assessment of ethics. Robertson concludes that the pride Americans take in a fabricated, heroic version of their history means more to them than the factual oppression Native Americans have faced. In addition, Robertson brings to light the growing amount of opposition to celebrating Columbus Day and how protesting and attending anti-Columbus events may eventually lead to a
H. Bickford III introduces the disparity between fact and fiction when it comes to the history of Christopher Columbus in children’s books. During his research, he found that 90% of the books in his study (which used a total of 33 children’s books focusing on Christopher Columbus) presented a strictly eurocentric viewpoint and failed to include voices of non-Europeans. According to Bickford, telling Columbus’s story only through the eyes of Europeans (who he calls the “victors”) “leaves readers—especially young students—with an incomplete understanding of the divergence of opinion through which history can, and must be, viewed”. He also found that the books, more often than not, failed to connect Christopher Columbus with violence, manipulation, or greed, and generally portrayed him without fault. Bickford often addresses heroification during his study, as it is one of the most used forms of historical misrepresentation in children’s literature, and explains that it is used to make Christopher Columbus look as if he has single-handedly altered history in a positive