Overview
Exterminate all the Brutes, Pt. 2or In the second episode of Exterminate All the Brutes, "Who the F*** Is Columbus", director Raoul Peck deconstructs how official history is shaped by those in power and solidified by myth. By revisiting these historical narratives from an Indigenous perspective, the documentary demonstrates how colonialism and white supremacy were legitimized through systemic erasure. [1, 2, 3]
Peck highlights several key interconnected themes:
- Rewriting Mythologized Events: The episode re-examines the glorification of Christopher Columbus, the Alamo, and the Trail of Tears. Peck strips away popular cultural mythology to reveal the underlying brutality, land theft, and genocide inflicted upon Native populations. [1, 2]
- The Doctrine of Discovery: Peck analyzes how the 15th-century "doctrine of discovery" was utilized as a legal and moral justification by European colonizers to steal Native lands, commit genocide, and later justify the enslavement of millions of African people. [1, 2, 3]
- Institutionalized Erasure: He emphasizes how the dominant Eurocentric narrative "silences the past", actively working to erase Indigenous resistance and the reality of the atrocities committed in the name of "civilization". [1, 2, 3, 4]
Peck weaves together archival footage, dramatic re-enactments, and personal narration to challenge his own place in these historical narratives and push viewers to confront the foundational violence that built the modern world. [1, 2, 3, 4]
You can watch or learn more about the series on HBO Max or Apple TV. [1, 2]
Directions:
**As with all Discussion Board posts, these are graded for CONTENT. The best way to earn a good grade is to explain your answer and why its significant for the time period referenced and/or for present day. You will not earn an A for briefly stating what the film says. I know what the film says :) I want to know what sense you make of it and what you think of it**
In an initial post, answer all of the following questions:
- How does Peck say humans participate in history?
- Why does Peck say few little American boys grow up wanting to be the "Indians"? Explain what you think he means by that.
- What was the dilemma for de las Casas, and how did it vary between Natives and Africans?
- Who was considered "Man"? How did that timing coincide with the Transatlantic slave trade?
- How does Peck say that historical narrative an exercise of power? What does he say our role is in this?
- In what ways did ethnocentrism merge into scientific racism?
- Why was Haiti the first real free republic in the Americas?
- How were the Irish depicted compared to the British, and how did this impact how Irish were treated historically?
- How is America supposedly being a nation of immigrants, actually a myth?
- During the Jacksonian period, how many treaties were made with Native tribes? What was the justification for the US repeatedly breaking them?