Columbus Day: Why I never take it off

MLK Day, My birthday, and Columbus Day are 3 days I never take off.

The dream of Dr. King isn't fully realized until we create some semblance of economic equality. My part of that legacy is to help women, immigrants and minorities learn sales processes for their businesses. By 2040, I plan to help 1,000 diverse business owners reach $1M in revenue per year.?

My birthday is a celebration of the opportunity to add to the world that had been gifted to me for another year. No better way to celebrate than add some more with good work.

Columbus Day is a whole other beast. When I was growing up, the Christopher Columbus mythology was enthralling. A Portuguese or Italian dude convinced the Queen of Spain to give him men, ships, and millions in resources to find better trade routes. The crew gets lost and find this beautiful rich land full of unimaginable treasures.?

Old Map of Hispaniola (Haiti + Dominican Republic)

It wasn't until my late teens that I understood that Hispaniola (meaning: little Spain) was one of the key places Christopher Columbus plundered. Sugar, gold, coffee, and of course people were taken from the island. That island is where the Dominican Republic and Haiti now stand.?

As a Haitian, I realized early on that France was a big part of the suffering of my ancestors. My parents would remind me growing up. Columbus' role in the Haitian experience wasn't spoken about in the same way. When he arrived in 1492, they were approximately 700,000 to 1M Tainos on the island. Tainos were the native people of the island. By 1514, they were only 32,000. Those people didn't disappear. They were killed.?

Living with US Indigenous people changed my life

The summer of 1997, Summer Search gave me the opportunity to spend time with Deer Hill Expeditions. Chelsea Clinton was there the year before. Her picture was hanging on the wall at the Deer Hill Expeditions HQ. For two weeks, I had the privilege of doing service projects on the Navajo reservation.?

We removed a year's worth of trash for an elderly couple. Those days you had to collect your trash and drive it to somewhere to dispose it. You had to collect your water for the house from a water a tower. People would drive to a strip mall and take 10 minute showers at the laundromat.

I couldn't believe these were conditions inside of the Untied States.?

Our host family, the Belintes, lived in Chinle, Arizona. They had an adopted son, Kevin. His mom had issues with alcohol so they took him in. Frank Belinte, the dad, worked 5 days a week on the railroad - outside the state. Mom was holding down the house but her name escapes me 24 years later.?

Kevin had to do everything a dad would do during the week. He collected and drove the team to the dump. He put massive water barrels on the pickup truck and filled them up at the water tower 20 miles away. He also helped take care of the other kids in the house.

They worked extremely hard but I was devastated by the environment around them.?

Young boys would drop out of school to help their families financially and gangs were prevalent. It reminded me of growing up inner city Boston in the 80s. Yet and still, the access to resources was dramatically different.

This is all the fallout from Christopher Columbus, a celebrated 'explorer', who I benefit from today. Everything I enjoy today from tech to conveniences like trash pick up is predated by Columbus wiping out the native people where my family is from.

I have to work towards creating a better tomorrow. Columbus Day is a reminder that my ancestors were lucky to survive in their time. So I owe them my contribution to bringing equality to this time.