One year ago, HBO's "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver asked, “How is this still a thing?” of the national holiday we observe on Monday, October 10. Today, I am asking myself the same thing.
Classes are cancelled, the United States Postal Service shuts down, and banks keep their doors locked. All in honor of the man who launched an era of colonialization and genocide in the Americas because he took a wrong turn. He is credited in “discovering the New World,” but let’s unpack that statement. You can’t “discover” a place that is already inhabited. You can’t declare a place to be “new” if entire civilizations have lived there over thousands of years. You can’t claim to have found a “New World” if you have not travelled to another planet or have somehow teleported into another dimension or realm. Columbus, you took a trip, and that doesn’t warrant you a holiday.
He didn't "discover the New World," but this is what he did do: he raped, pillaged, killed, and exploited indigenous people. What he did led to centuries of others repeating those same actions, and sometimes, they did even worse than that. His actions were so atrocious and disgusting that the consequences are still felt today.
So many others before me have spoken and written at length (and much more eloquently and emphatically than I have) on all of the reasons why Columbus does not deserve anything, much less a holiday. I am upset because this has still not been enough. I am angry that people’s voices, those of academics and non-academics alike, have been tossed into oblivion on this subject. I am angry that Native Americans are forced to live in a country that not only disregards their histories of suffering and pain but celebrates the man who started it all. I am angry because my ancestors in South America do not deserve this. I am tired because this is still very much a thing.
I do not understand why some businesses shut down and others put up sales and discounts on this day. I do not understand why schools are not in session when the least they could do is discuss exactly where the textbooks are wrong and set the record straight. I do not understand why our government expects us to commemorate 500 years of exploitation, domination, and the near extinction of so many people.
It makes more sense to devote a day to not only acknowledge and admit that severe and devastating mistakes were made but to, at least, attempt to right them by celebrating the survival of these victims. It makes more sense to devote a day to reflecting on what exact transgressions were made, and why they were wrong to do. It makes more sense to devote a day to recognizing and learning about the cultures, traditions, arts and religions of peoples that were almost extinguished, in the same way we learn about the Greeks and Romans.
Native people are the most underrepresented minority group in the media and across many career fields, such as criminal justice ironically enough. Most of the ways they do become present on the large scale is when they are misrepresented as team mascots and Halloween costumes. Because of this, it is no small thing that each year more cities and states reject this federal “holiday” and celebrate Indigenous People’s Day instead. “For years, Native Americans have pressured local governments to acknowledge the mass atrocities committed by Columbus and flip the script by honoring indigenous groups’ contributions to the country instead.” For the movement to start enacting real change in the nation and have local governments observe Indigenous People’s Day is amazing, but we still have a long way to go.
We honor the victims of 9/11, we honor our veterans, and we honor our presidents with their own respective holidays and memorials. Why don’t we honor Native people, too? How is this not a thing?
