In the United States, three powerful myths — the story of Columbus discovering America, the First Thanksgiving, and the Southern Strategy — have constructed a picture of power.
Each was a strategic invention, designed to make domination look like destiny, violence sound like virtue, and inequality feel like heritage.
Historically, America has strategically constructed stories that cast it as a bright light. It’s time to be just as strategic in our truth-telling as those who built the lies.
The Columbus myth
The story goes that a brave explorer “discovered” a new world and opened the path to civilization. But that tale of discovery is really a story of erasure. Indigenous peoples had lived across the Americas for tens of thousands of years, building vast, complex societies. By calling their lands “discovered,” Europe declared them empty, available, and waiting to be claimed.
That was no accident. The Columbus myth transformed invasion into heroism, conquest into progress, and genocide into God’s plan.
The Thanksgiving myth
Fast-forward to 1621 and a familiar image: Pilgrims and Native Americans sitting together in gratitude and peace, the supposed birth of American friendship and faith. But the real story is far more complex — and far more revealing.
The Wampanoag people, led by Massasoit, joined the feast not as honored guests but as concerned neighbors. Hearing gunfire from the settlers, they came to investigate, not to celebrate. Their nation had been ravaged by a European-borne epidemic. That gathering was not a religious celebration and did not mark the start of lasting peace. Within decades, the alliance collapsed in war and blood.
Two centuries later, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday amid the Civil War. His goal was to unify a fractured nation under a shared, moral story. The myth of peaceful coexistence became a symbol of national virtue.
Thanksgiving, then, was not simply a holiday — it was a strategic cleansing of colonial guilt. It taught that America’s beginnings were humble, cooperative, and blessed by God — not built on displacement and genocide.
The Southern Strategy: Inventing division
If Columbus created legitimacy and Thanksgiving created innocence, the Southern Strategy created control.
After the Civil Rights Movement dismantled Jim Crow laws in the 1960s, political strategists faced a challenge: how to preserve white political power in a newly desegregated America. The answer was familiar — change the story.
Instead of open racism, they spoke of “states’ rights,” “law and order,” and “family values.” Confederate symbols were rebranded as “heritage.” Economic inequality became “personal responsibility.” Racial resentment was coded as patriotism.
Perfected by Presidents Nixon and Reagan, this strategy redefined who “real Americans” were — and who was taking their country away. It didn’t just divide; it mythologized division, convincing millions that protecting privilege was defending freedom.
It’s not enough to correct these myths with facts. We must be as strategic in truth-telling as those who built the lies.
Our counter-narratives must do what theirs did: move hearts, shape identity, and make justice feel like destiny.
I stand on the African proverb: Until the Lion tells the story, the hunter is always the hero. Now is the time to tell the truth strategically and boldly. If myths helped build America, then truth — strategically told — can rebuild it.
Maxine Bryant, Ph.D., is the founder of GriotSpeaks, author, and African American culture keeper.