Thank you for this excellent essay and for the clip from Coach Popovich. As an Italian American, I have always found it to be absurd that getting rid of the highly insulting Columbus Day holiday would hurt the feelings of people of Italian ancestry. It’s true that the Knights of Columbus have argued against eliminating this holiday, but I think to a large extent they are in minority. I completely ignore Columbus Day because I refuse to see Columbus as an Italian who should be honored in any way. He initiated an ongoing genocide, and I don’t want to be associated with any part of that.
But the question remains that has always been there everytime we approached Columbus Day. What did Columbus ever have to do with the United States or British settlements in the New World in the first place? Why not Spanish Armada day that enabled British settlements in the North America and the Caribbean?
But as for the celebration of Natives, a better solution than a day, would be a UN resolution ranting them statehood, many statehoods, for every tribe, and every nation recognizing their statehood and not recognizing the settler Americans as any kind of official statehood, just a partitioned area where they are supposed to be able to live,
I'm trying to make an analogy to the middle east here, not a particularly logical one everyone will say. But then was the UN grant and partitioning of Palestine very logical?
Again, there should be an indigenous people's day, a holiday, I agree.
Perhaps this day is an opportunity to reflect upon violence against Indigenous peoples and immigrants since our history books have failed for generations to adequately address either.
Good news: Columbus Day is solely an East Coast holiday. When we moved to California from Boston, it vanished from the calendar. When I mention it to people here, they look at me blankly, or laugh. So, the country is half way through the process of getting rid of the holiday.
Thank you, thank you for this. Our education was so deplorable that so much of what you included is sadly new to us. We must share this with the hope it becomes universal knowledge.
I like this guy's routine. He's suggesting Joe DiMaggio Day. Maybe the people who like to spice up the tribute, and add some tension to it, could celebrate Al Capone Day, too.
While I certainly agree that celebrating Columbus is not a good thing and I also agree that recognition of "indigenous" peoples is a good thing, I would prefer to recognize the geological deep-time view that we are all immigrants in America, which would be the most-inclusive unifying holiday we could define. Sadly, that'll have to wait for a time when we are not so hideously divided amongst ourselves.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is necessary, but it should not replace Columbus Day. That would be too easy.
Columbus Day should be preserved, but as a day of mourning. It should become a Pan-American Genocide Remembrance Day. (If this doesn’t happen to Columbus Day, it will have to happen to Thanksgiving Day. Take your pick.)
Only after we white people mourn properly should we be allowed to celebrate the survival of indigenous people. No celebration should ever be allowed to erase the tragedy of post-Colombian history. Nor can we both mourn and celebrate on the same day. Thus, we must preserve two holidays: one for mourning and the other for celebration.
There is a National Day of Mourning that occurs every year simultaneously with Thanksgiving Day. But your point is valid, and I think what you're referring to is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The USA has never had that despite its founding on genocide of one People and enslavement of another People. That is critically needed going forward.
People have no idea what is taught in schools nowadays… The average gen z child knows all of this. This isn’t a real problem or won’t be very soon.
Darn! How did I not know this? I’m 80 and grateful to be becoming better informed instead of indoctrinated. Thank you!
Thank you for this excellent essay and for the clip from Coach Popovich. As an Italian American, I have always found it to be absurd that getting rid of the highly insulting Columbus Day holiday would hurt the feelings of people of Italian ancestry. It’s true that the Knights of Columbus have argued against eliminating this holiday, but I think to a large extent they are in minority. I completely ignore Columbus Day because I refuse to see Columbus as an Italian who should be honored in any way. He initiated an ongoing genocide, and I don’t want to be associated with any part of that.
Goes without saying.
But the question remains that has always been there everytime we approached Columbus Day. What did Columbus ever have to do with the United States or British settlements in the New World in the first place? Why not Spanish Armada day that enabled British settlements in the North America and the Caribbean?
But as for the celebration of Natives, a better solution than a day, would be a UN resolution ranting them statehood, many statehoods, for every tribe, and every nation recognizing their statehood and not recognizing the settler Americans as any kind of official statehood, just a partitioned area where they are supposed to be able to live,
I'm trying to make an analogy to the middle east here, not a particularly logical one everyone will say. But then was the UN grant and partitioning of Palestine very logical?
Again, there should be an indigenous people's day, a holiday, I agree.
If we want to talk about European contact with the Americas, perhaps we should start with the archaeological support for the travels of a Viking woman named Gudrid around 1000 AD. 3-3-21 Did a Viking Woman Named Gudrid Really Travel to North America in 1000 A.D.? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-viking-woman-named-gudrid-really-travel-north-america-1000-years-ago-180977126/
It's important to know that Columbus Day was an attempt to deal with anti-immigrant violence and a diplomatic crisis with Italy that had nothing to do with Columbus' purported 'discovery.' 10-10-21 Columbus Day began with a mob killing 11 Italian Americans https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/10/10/columbus-day-benjamin-harrison-mob-italians/; 4-15-19 New Orleans Apologizes for 1891 Lynching of Italian-Americans https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-orleans-apologizes-1891-lynching-italian-americans-180971959/.
Perhaps this day is an opportunity to reflect upon violence against Indigenous peoples and immigrants since our history books have failed for generations to adequately address either.
Thank you! Just like Thankstaking, more invented history to make genocide less genocidal.
FYI: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/christopher-columbus-was-secretly-jewish/ar-AA1sb83m?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=c832647d5f1c4323b58a8ba1288526f7&ei=41
Wild that he demonized Jewish people while himself being Jewish.
I believe it was censored
My comments aren’t posting
Good news: Columbus Day is solely an East Coast holiday. When we moved to California from Boston, it vanished from the calendar. When I mention it to people here, they look at me blankly, or laugh. So, the country is half way through the process of getting rid of the holiday.
Thank you, thank you for this. Our education was so deplorable that so much of what you included is sadly new to us. We must share this with the hope it becomes universal knowledge.
It's that time of year https://youtu.be/TzJp43NOzXc?si=LUKV4H_pXPSZxhzW
I like this guy's routine. He's suggesting Joe DiMaggio Day. Maybe the people who like to spice up the tribute, and add some tension to it, could celebrate Al Capone Day, too.
As this chat was going on I remembered when I was 9 I wrote the class Columbus Day play, and this piece I wrote in penance https://substack.com/home/post/p-150260362?source=queue
While I certainly agree that celebrating Columbus is not a good thing and I also agree that recognition of "indigenous" peoples is a good thing, I would prefer to recognize the geological deep-time view that we are all immigrants in America, which would be the most-inclusive unifying holiday we could define. Sadly, that'll have to wait for a time when we are not so hideously divided amongst ourselves.
Long overdue!
All this, right here, Qasim. Love your inclusion of the Good Place meme, btw. Janet was awesome.
Probably the best meme for the subject out there :)
Yeah, good Janet was.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is necessary, but it should not replace Columbus Day. That would be too easy.
Columbus Day should be preserved, but as a day of mourning. It should become a Pan-American Genocide Remembrance Day. (If this doesn’t happen to Columbus Day, it will have to happen to Thanksgiving Day. Take your pick.)
Only after we white people mourn properly should we be allowed to celebrate the survival of indigenous people. No celebration should ever be allowed to erase the tragedy of post-Colombian history. Nor can we both mourn and celebrate on the same day. Thus, we must preserve two holidays: one for mourning and the other for celebration.
There is a National Day of Mourning that occurs every year simultaneously with Thanksgiving Day. But your point is valid, and I think what you're referring to is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The USA has never had that despite its founding on genocide of one People and enslavement of another People. That is critically needed going forward.