Columbusing
Submission 28,384
Part of a series on Cultural Appropriation. [View Related Entries]
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About
Columbusing is an Internet slang term used to describe the act of white people appropriating non-white culture for themselves without recognizing its true origins. The term is named after the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who was credited with discovering the Americas while it was already inhabited by indigenous people.
Origin
The earliest definition of the neologism "columbusing" was submitted by Urban Dictionary user Harunei on January 26th, 2013 (shown below).
However, the term didn't receive mass exposure online until June 23rd, 2014, when CollegeHumor[1] released a sketch comedy film titled "Colmbusing: Discovering Things for White People" (shown below).
Spread
The day after the release of the CollegeHumor comedy sketch, it was highlighted on The Huffington Post,[3] where it received over 40,000 Facebook likes in the next two weeks. On June 25th, the women's interest site Jezebel[5] published an article praising the video for calling out cultural appropriation. On July 6th, NPR[2] published an article titled "Columbusing: The Art of Discovering Something That is Not New," which cited a BuzzFeed[6] article referring to empanada baked pastries as "hand pies" as an example of Columbusing. On July 7th, the Internet news site UpRoxx[4] highlighted the CollegeHumor video.
Search Interest
External References
[1] CollegeHumor – Columbusing
[2] NPR – Columbusing is the art of discovering
[3] The Huffington Post – Columbusing
[4] UpRoxx – Columbusing is the newest scourge to effect
[5] Jezebel – Columbusing, a word for when white people
[7] Urban Dictionary – Columbusing
[8] Slate – Finally, a Perfect Term for When White People “Discover” Things
[9] Jezebel – Notable Moments in White People Taking Credit For Discovering Things
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