I want to wish everyone a Happy Indigenous Peoples Day. Yes, yes, I know that the current Presidential administration wants us to celebrate Columbus Day, but the irony of it all is lost on so many people.
It wasn’t until 1934 where the Knights of Columbus and Italian civic leaders wanted a holiday as people of Italian ancestry were becoming very criticized by others as organized crime had escalated with bootlegging during Prohibition. And as Italy under Benito Mussolini had joined the Germany and Japan in the Axis Powers.
As a matter of fact, I remember growing up in Georgia in the 1980s and it wasn’t even recognized as much even though other states and school districts had. My school district decided to have Fall Break around this time. And this area was once the capital of the Cherokee Nation before the Trail of Tears.
However, as people began to learn the truth, it got harder to celebrate someone who was actually a pretty terrible person. A popular myth that has been disproven is that Columbus was the only one who believed the Earth was spherical. And he wasn’t the first person from Europe to visit the North American continents.
In fact, most of the lands had become civilized for centuries. However under the command of Columbus, the Spanish-led explorers spent years raping, torturing, mutilating and even killing many of the local indigenous people including children in search of gold they believed the natives were hiding. Many indigenous people were enslaved but a lot committed suicide rather than endure it any longer. So, yes, Columbus is responsible for what would become the North Atlantic Slave Trade from the early 1500s to the middle of the 1800s.
For his actions, Columbus was later arrested and spent weeks in prison before the King of Spain ordered him released. Columbus also reportedly contacted venereal diseases which led to him having health issues, which is no where near what he deserved. He died at the age of 54. Most of the paintings and portraits of him are based on second-hand observations of what he looked like.
As for the Indigenous people, they endured hardships over the next five centuries and including present time. They were given blankets that was riddled with smallpox. American soldiers killed them and spread lies of their “uprisings” to justify the massacres. And as portrayed in Killers of the Flower Moon, they were killed for their rights to land they own after be moved by force from their homes in other parts of the country.
It’s ironic our current administration is acting so high and mighty when the original intention was a public relations move to make people see Italians in a more positive light. Currently, there are masked people running around this country rounding up people for no reason but the color of their skin. There’s even footage of them going after teenage girls and young boys that some have speculated are being used in sex trafficking.
To celebrate an awful person like Columbus on any day is disgusting. But the only reason the conservatives and the White House officials care is that liberals and leftists have the audacity to let the truth out. At the same time, they’re criticizing Bad Bunny, a native of Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory) for performing at the 2026 Super Bowl.
Seriously, how much longer do we have to “celebrate” this day as if it’s a great moment in American history considering that Columbus never set foot on present day America. Oh, and America is named in memory of Amerigo Vespucci, another Italian explorer. It was Latinized to Americus and them renamed for the feminine word, America.
So, yes, as conservative Americans are planning their own MAGA Super Bowl half-time show, they actually have a Latinized word in their fucking movement phrase.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 